Twenty-five years ago, Al White was “saving the world one piece of cardboard at a time” as a co-owner of a company that recycled cardboard. Then in a flash his life changed forever. He turned a catastrophic accident into a life of service.
White saw a “big opportunity to build a business while doing good for his community,” according to the Arizona Daily Sun. He realized that China was buying a lot of cardboard, but no one was collecting cardboard because people put it into their trash, the article said.
White and a business partner “secured a $17,000 grant from the Department of Environmental Quality,” bought a “beat-up 1984 front-loading garbage truck and about a hundred dumpsters that we put all around town for people to separate out their cardboard,” White told the Sun.
And business was good, White said, noting that they “were keeping it out of the landfill” and were “doing all of the things that recyclers we supposed to do.”
The catastrophic accident changed everything
In the article, White described the accident “that left him a paraplegic with no feeling below his upper chest.”
A mechanic and a driver picked up a load of cardboard, “more than they should have,” and “packed it in until it got stuck,” he told the newspaper. Then, when they got back to his recycling business, they couldn’t get the cardboard out of the truck, he said.
“I was crouched down in front of the truck looking at the hydraulic motor and the knuckleheads brought the bar down in the front of the truck, that 8-inch bar caught me on the shoulders, pushed my face into the grill, ripped my nose off and snapped my back between the shoulder blades,” he said in the article.
After being in the hospital for six weeks, the hospital released him, but he didn’t have a place to go, according to the Daily Sun.
Fortunately, the article said, “friends threw a benefit concert and raised $17,000, which got White through the first year. Then they found him an apartment downtown and he rented out his trailer on the east side.”
What to do with your life after a catastrophic accident?
After his catastrophic accident, White didn’t know what he would do for the rest of his life. What he did know was that he was experiencing “physical and emotional barriers…in Flagstaff,” the paper stated. When the Disability Awareness Commission asked him to talk about these barriers, he spoke about a story he had seen in the newspaper about “Barbie’s dream house.” He told them, “Barbie had a friend in a wheelchair and the story was that the friend’s wheelchair didn’t fit in Barbie’s dream house. That was my life at that moment.”
The difficulties he was having “navigating through his community” led him to start asking questions about buildings in Flagstaff, he told the Daily Sun. He asked questions about the construction of “Heritage Square and its underground parking garage,” learning that it was seven feet, not the required eight feet. With that knowledge, he spoke to the “city community development department and got four van accessible disabled spots in the lot across from Charlie’s,” he said. That’s when he “realized that one person could really make a difference.”
a life of public service
Helping to acquire the van accessible disabled parking spots helped lead White to a “seat on the city council, a spot he held for 12 years,” the news article said. And that led to a life of public service for the last two and a half decades.
Part of his public service has involved Theatrikos, a performance art theater in Flagstaff. According to its Facebook page, Theatrikos provides “high quality live theater and fun programs for youth.” The Daily Sun stated that White “is currently working to see a new 75-year lease signed between the city and Theatrikos.” He is also working to help the theater expand its TheatriKids program to the east side of Flagstaff with classes for children, the article said.
how to face unexpected change
For White, the last 25 years have shown him what people can do if their lives completely change into one they thought they would never live.
“You have to grieve for what you lost, but don’t focus on what you can’t do, focus on what you can do. If you focus on what you can do, then those doors start to open,” he said in the article.
For White, that meant dedicating his life to public service. He turned a catastrophic accident into a life of service.
