Running the Route

It seems long in the past now, but when James McCormack first started working at the Investment Recovery Center at Avista, he didn’t even have a driver’s license. Today, he has a regular driver’s license in addition to being certified to drive a forklift, something he’s incredibly proud of.

“I am a forklift driver. That’s an accomplishment I’m going to keep with me for the rest of my life,” McCormack said. “I do ’the route’ and you have to go through all five floors [at Avista’s corporate base].”

His supervisor Dave Rogers said that he was introduced to McCormack through Malachi Chaney. McCormack had explained to Rogers that at his grocery store job, there was no way for him to advance because they viewed disabilities as a limitation to succeeding at new challenges.

“I said if you would like a different job opportunity, come here, take a look at the place. He did, fell in love with it, and decided to come over here and I immediately wanted to move him up because I saw that’s what he was struggling with in his last job. The first thing I did over here was to get him into everything possible.” Rogers said. “He didn’t have a driver’s license and that’s one thing that’s required for a forklift. I said guess what, you are getting a driver’s license because I need you on the forklift. Do you want to move up? Here we go.”

It took McCormack much more time than he would have wanted to pass the written test, but he passed the actual driving test with flying colors on the first try.

Rogers is quick to point out that because the written test makes no accommodations, it became a barrier to McCormack obtaining his driver’s license. However, McCormack was persistent, because he knew Rogers and the rest of his team at Avista were cheering him on.

“It took him almost 14 tries to pass that written test, but you put him on the forklift and (snaps his fingers) it’s like that,” Rogers said. “Now he’s all over the place, he is one of our best forklift drivers. It’s giving them an opportunity, that little, tiny piece that you need to put that puzzle together for them and they’re out the door.”

“And I finally got it. I was pretty happy about that,” McCormack said.