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Profile: Artie

Artie is much more sanguine about selling Real Change than either Frank or Ariauna. A grizzled Viet Nam vet, Artie was blinded in a friendly fire incident when a gas canister exploded in his face. To make matters worse, while he was receiving ongoing care in and out of VA hospital in Maryland, a car in which he was riding was broadsided, leaving him partially paralyzed from the waist down.

Artie has had a tough life for the past forty-some years, never having been “employed”, and living as a ward of the state for about as long as he can remember. He is a quiet man, living in constant pain in his arms, hips and spine. He has a few friends who deliver his papers to him on mornings he feels up to getting out and about in his wheelchair. He doesn’t really interact with customers because he doesn’t want to elicit any pity. He sits quietly with the papers in his lap and holds forth for as long as he can last. He likes it best when people bring food or coffee and place it in his grasp.

While he’s never met any of the staff of Real Change, he has the sense that the quality of the paper must have improved since he began selling them. He often gets comments about the content in the paper, and has regulars read portions of it to him.

Artie is a member of the fabled 600 club, having sold enough papers that no one other than he can sell the paper at that location. Period. That’s a real plus given his physical condition and the changeability of his health problems from day to day.

Arte is proud of the fact that he’s never panhandled and that he is still mostly in charge of his daily routine. He is exactly the kind of vendor Real Change was established to help, and his daily presence outside Bartell’s is testimony to the power of the program to offset major life hindrances. In Artie’s case, Real Change has been a beacon of affirmation of his human value set amidst the backdrop of some pretty devastating luck.

About Real Change

http://sovereignfunding.com/blog/2011/09/real-change-offers-real-hope.html

Vendor profile: Ariauna

http://sovereignfunding.com/blog/2011/09/real-change-offers-real-hope-2.html

Vendor profile: Frank

http://sovereignfunding.com/blog/2011/09/happy-camper.html