“Committed” became a term synonymous with Landrum High School graduate Caleb Cooper around Habitat for Humanity’s Restore Shop in Landrum this year.
“He was like my left arm just being here,” said Habitat store manager JoEllen Kniffin.
The recent graduate was honored on senior day with the first Work Coop Award ever awarded by LHS.
Cooper participates in the Life Certificate Program at Landrum, which allows students to spend many of their traditional school hours at a job site.
Life instructor Randall Cummings said the award was created to honor a kid who had developed stronger life skills and gotten out there and shown progress using those skills in the work place.
“Caleb has just gotten excellent reviews all across the board. This year he just took off and has worked hard. He developed a high level of dedication,” Cummings said.
Through the Life program, students are placed in jobs and given a job coach. They then receive evaluations from the job coach and the employers. Through the program students must achieve a certain number of work hours, whether paid or volunteer.
Cooper began volunteering at the Restore Shop in September, working two days a week.
Kniffin said the work served as good socialization for Cooper and taught him how to think from a business perspective.
“It’s a good experience for him, I think. to go out in the job field,” Kniffin said. “He’s learned how to handle things in a business sense.”
While there he assists other staff members with loading furniture, unloading donations, rebuilding items and any other necessary tasks.
“I enjoy it a lot. It’s fun to work with most of the people who are volunteers there,” Cooper said. “I like building stuff and lifting heavy stuff. I’ve been working there so long that they’ve asked me to do have a lot more responsibility.”
Cummings said the program was happy to honor Cooper as its first Work Coop Award winner.
“You give him a task, he was going to get it done,” Cummings said. “His sense of helpfulness is in it because he wasn’t getting paid at this job, but he was taking it seriously and worked hard at it.”
Cummings said the Life program hopes to add additional awards for its participants next year. About five students participate in the Life Certificate Program at LHS each year.
As for Cooper’s future, he is currently coordinating with a job coach to get placement working at the Adidas warehouse in Spartanburg, S.C. Cooper said he wants to continue volunteering at Habitat on his off days.
“I’ve always like to help people and the manager is always asking for me to help whenever I can,” he said.