Almonte Country Haven's Maintenance Manager, Robert (Bucky) Warren, is seen here with co-op student Mike Dionne. Almonte has had good luck finding hard-working students from the program, says Bucky.

Maintenance manager sees value in school co-op program
Thursday, December 2, 2004 - Roderick Benns
Almonte Country Haven’s Maintenance Manager, Robert (Bucky) Warren, has had great luck in finding competent, hard-working co-op students from the local high school to help him out lately.

Mike Dionne, a Grade 12 student doing his co-op placement at Almonte since September, has been "a great help," according to Bucky.

"I don’t have to watch him – he just goes about doing what needs to be done," says Bucky.

Since the student has been at Almonte, Bucky says he has taught him how to floor tile and paint, skills he has picked up quickly.

And while 90 per cent of the co-op placement is maintenance related, Bucky says the student also helps out the nutritional care department, the life enrichment department or whoever needs assistance.

"On Mondays and Thursdays, when kitchen stock comes in, I don’t even have to say anything – he just goes and puts things away right away," says Bucky.

While Bucky was on vacation, all reports back were the student always kept busy, too, says the maintenance manager.

"The school asked me if I’d be willing to take co-op students regularly and I told them if I keep getting students like Mike then I’d be happy to," says Bucky.

At the last communities of practice meeting, Bucky highly recommended to the other maintenance managers they create relationships with their area high schools to try and foster similar kinds of experiences in the other OMNI homes.