By Craig Williams

Randy Gardner is a hard working man. Raised by a single mother, he attended school at Meridian, and officially started working when he was 15 years old. But he’d been helping provide for the family even before then. When he graduated as a member of the Meridian class of 1980, he went to work on the river, where he remained for 20 years before starting his own construction company. On the river, he eventually attained a position that put him in charge of all the welders and dry-dock personnel at the Urbandale facility of American Commercial Barge Line (ACBL). He was responsible for as many as 75 people at one of the world’s largest and most important maritime transport companies. He’s always been a hard worker. And that work ethic enabled him to build a quality life, raise a family, and help a lot of other people have the opportunity to work as well. Seven years ago, he brought all of that back to Meridian.

Today, Randy is the Director of the school’s maintenance department, and because of him, our campus is always in tip-top shape. If you haven’t been inside our buildings lately, you should stop in for a visit. Ask for Mr. Green and tell him you’ve come to inspect Randy’s work! You will not see a shinier floor or a better maintained set of school buildings anywhere. And that’s because Randy and his team oversee all of the day-to-day issues of physical plant upkeep with pride, which includes custodial and landscaping services, installation of fencing, laying of paving stones, repair of equipment, furniture, and fixtures, pulling of concrete, installation of playground equipment, and the occasional oversight of larger construction projects on campus. The school day lives of nearly 500 students and almost 100 faculty, staff and administrative team members depend on his professionalism and that of his 10-member team.

I asked Randy what he’d share with Meridian students in support of their efforts to put their own plans into place for the future, and he told me, “These kids have all they need, to do whatever it is they want to do in life. They’re plenty smart, and if they’ll respect themselves and just work hard, they will go far. They do that, and they cannot fail.” He’s seen it in his own family. With two sons of his own and four grandchildren, Randy understands that life isn’t always predictable or easy, but with your shoulder to the wheel and your eye on the prize, the young people of Meridian today can accomplish anything.

As I often do with other story subjects, I asked Randy what he’d do if I handed him a 100% guaranteed-to-work magic wand that held no limits in either scope or scale, and he quickly came back with as good an answer as I’ve ever heard; he’d get rid of all the hatred. “There’s just too much hate in the world for no good reason. If we could just find a way to get along with one another, lose the mindless hatred, the world would be a much better place.”

For his part, by keeping the small corner of the physical world he maintains — Meridian School — in good working order, Randy is making a meaningful difference for our kids every single day and we’re lucky to have him.