ROTARY CLUB HONOREE SOARS WITH HIGH-FLYING LA VERNE COMPANY by Larry Stewart

Kelly impresses everybody, including supervisor Rogelio Buenrostro, with her keyboarding skills.

     Kelly Stewart, a 35-year-old data entry clerk at DPI Labs in La Verne, recently got a Rotary Club citizenship award, which on the surface may not seem to be anything special.
     But the story here is that Kelly Stewart is special.
     Kelly has difficulties with verbal communication, which affects her social skills. But she has other skills that make her special. She is very bright in some areas with a phenomenal memory when it comes to things that interest her, such as movies or music.
      She is also a very fast and accurate typist, and that makes her a valuable employee.
       “We here at DPI are always trying to help people with special needs,” said CEO Vicki Brown. “And we have found that in return they help us. They are diligent workers whose main goal is to please, and that describes Kelly.”
       DPI President Greg DeSmet said, “I’ve learned in managing people that you have to find the special skills each individual has. Kelly has a special skill, and we don’t ask her to do anything that she would have trouble doing.”
         DPI Labs, located at 1350 Arrow Highway, is a very specialized, hi-tech business that builds flight deck controls for Boeing 777 and cabin management systems for business Jets.
  

Kelly's father, Larry Stewart, and DPI Labs CEO Vicki Brown.

       Kelly has worked there since June. Al Snow, a DPI board member, was the one who suggested Kelly apply for the job there. And it was Brown who hired her.
       Brown is also the CEO of Sowing Seeds for Life, a charitable organization that feeds some 5,000 needy people a month in the La Verne-San Dimas-Glendora-Pomona area. That shows what kind of person she is.
        The atmosphere around DPI makes it a perfect fit for Kelly. And I should know. Kelly is my daughter. My wife Norma and I have two daughters. Kelly is the older of the two.
        Life has been somewhat of a struggle for Kelly. As a child, school was not easy for her – academically or socially. But because of help from some great special education teachers along the way, Kelly was able to graduate from Arcadia High in 1994.
      After high school, she attended the San Gabriel Valley Training Center in the City of Industry. Her typing ability was discovered there.
      At 19, she was able to get a driver’s license, and that was a big step forward.
      She has had a number of data entry jobs, but three years ago she was unemployed and spending most of her time holed up in her room at our home in Arcadia listening to her vast collection of CDs or watching TV.
      But she has made tremendous strides since then. First, through arrangements made by the state Department of Rehabilitation, she began taking classes at Mt. Sierra College, a private school located in Monrovia.
    

Kelly Stewart is flanked by Don Bledstein of the Van Nuys Rotary Club and Keri Giddens of the Tierra del Sol Foundation. Bledstein presented Kelly with her citizenship award.

     But still her life lacked traction. She was pretty much spinning her wheels. Her life had no direction.
     Then two years ago, through a friend, Pat McClenahan, former president and general manager of sister television stations KCBS and KCAL, I learned of the Tierra del Sol Foundation, which is based in Sunland but also has the First Street Gallery Art Center in Claremont.
      The executive director of Tierra del Sol, Steve Miller, thought the people at his foundation could get Kelly on the right path.
      Turns out, they could. Not that everything is perfect with Kelly these days, but things are certainly a lot better. And the person who gets the most credit for that is Tierra del Sol staff member Keri Giddens. To say she is fabulous is an understatement. I don’t think there is a word that adequately describes what Keri has meant to Kelly.

Kelly with DPI President Greg DeSmet, left, and DPI board member Al Snow.

      Consider this:  Kelly is doing well at Mt. Sierra College – even getting some A’s — and is on her way to a B.A. in business. She belongs to a social group at Lake Avenue Church in Pasadena. She loves her job and the people at DPI Labs. And, most importantly, since January she has been living on her own in an apartment in El Monte, and thrilled about that.
      She met all the goals set out for her by Tierra del Sol, which led to her to being honored by the Van Nuys Rotary Club on March 30. It is something the club has been doing for years for special young people.
      The hope here is that the story of Kelly’s triumphs might offer encouragement to parents of other children who fit into her mold. It shows that, with the help of others such as the people at Tierra del Sol and DPI Labs, there can be better days ahead.

Larry Stewart was a sports columnist at the Los Angeles Times for more than 30 years after spending more than nine years at the Herald Examiner, including four as assistant sports editor.