Opening the Building

Most people identify themselves with their jobs; they become a robot working for a company as an extention of it’s will. April doesn’t work for a corporation or a facade, but rather, she works for others. April does more than work at the Photography Building at Spokane Falls Community College, she enlivens the space she works in with a motherly disposition and an intrinsic value on the worth of people. The people she says, rather than anything else, is why she continues to come back year after year.
With a family of her own at home, she devotes her motherly care on those in the Photo building when she’s not with her own kids. After fighting a teenager and seven-year-old to school every morning, she leaves to open the photo building by seven a.m. She unlocks the doors and turns on the lights while most of us are either in bed or wishing that we still were. She mixes chemicals for the darkroom, orginizes the tools students will need to process and develop their pictures, and arguably most important, she puts the coffee on. The result of her half hour in the building by herself in the mornings is a bright, inviting work and learning envirornment for everyone who benefits from the space, whether they take it for granted or not.
Most of April’s days appear similiar in routine. They hold the same chores and the same responsibilities. It isn’t the scenery that changes in April’s day-to-day life, she does see though new faces, new talent and a chance to make new connections and new relationships with everyone she meets. Also, she always gets to see the old faces, the old friends and bring to them the positive support of a caring friend.