And serving as father to the unofficial family here is executive director Sam Ronicker. The lifestyle there — simple, quiet, hard working — is an important tool in his mission to help struggling young men.
“This is a very simple life and it sort of escapes that busyness [of life] and helps you step back and reflect a little on what’s really important,” Ronicker said.
Ronicker practices what he preaches; he says he hasn’t used a cell phone for nearly two years. Ronicker stopped using his cell phone when he left his last job to take a position that would affect the lives of other individuals.
After a year in the job, Ronicker put the lessons he had learned to paper. Ronicker spent a year penning letters to one of his own children, and published the letters recently in his first book, “Letters to Shelley.”
A father’s letters to his daughter, the book chronicles a year in the life of Operation Rebirth, through challengers, mundane events, and tender moments.
His daughter, Shelley Valdez, said her father’s service with Operation Rebirth is similar to how she was raised.
“He’s constantly learning how to deal with children and he’s humble dealing with children,” Valdez said. “It’s not just a job for him, it’s truly a ministry.”
SWITCHING CAREERS
In February 2008, Jim Brian, the director emeritus of the ministry Operation Rebirth, talked with board member Sam Ronicker about replacing him as executive director after he retired.
Ronicker was already active with the organization as the secretary on the board of directors, but he had to make the decision about leaving his job as the consumer sales manager for the Springfield News-Sun, a company he had worked for since 1996.
After deciding to join the ministry, one of Ronicker’s co-worker’s asked why he was leaving the newspaper industry to work for a low paying job.
“Do I want to sell papers at 50 cents a pop for the rest of my life, or do I want to do something that has an impact for an eternity,” Sam Ronicker said.
Ronicker and his wife, Teresa, started the following Wednesday as dorm parents at the ministry. As dorm parents the Ronickers were responsible for watching the young men anytime they were out of school and lived with them in the house behind the main office.
Ronicker says the experience as a dorm parent helps him as the director because it allowed him to know the young men outside of class and understand the role of the current dorm parents.
Seven children are enrolled in the program ranging from the ages of 11 to 16. Ronicker says all of the young men come from broken homes and come to the program angry about the situation they come from.
“They feel like somehow or another life has not been fair to them and God has not been fair to them because they don’t have the typical family,” Ronicker said. “We kind of help them see that they’re not as unique as they think they are in their troubles and we pray for God to change their heart.”
Ronicker wants the young men to grow up to be men of character, men of God and break the cycle of broken homes. He says because he grew up in a broken home he can be an example to the children and can relate to what they’re feeling.
Ronicker says the three traits that help him guide the men are patience, perseverance and sincerity.
Along with helping the young men, Ronicker also works with the family to help for when the child leaves the program. Brian, who has known Ronicker since he was a teenager, says that Ronicker is a good problem solver and is able to communicate with parents.
“He is very consistent and very detailed and able to outline a plan of progress,” Brian said. “He has a special ability to move into a boy or family’s situation and move them from point A to point B.”
Ronicker said it’s hard to tell if they’ve accomplished their goal until a child grows up and they can see how they have progressed. An example of this was when a former student came back as an adult with his wife and child and adamantly praised how much the school helped raise him.
“He was showing his wife around telling her how much this place changed his life,” Teresa Ronicker said. “It was really cool because lots of times you don’t know (how you’ve impacted them). You never hear from them again, sometimes some will come back and lots of times you’ll just hear an update from a parent.”
In December 2008, Ronicker started writing letters about what happened daily to his daughter Shelley Valdez who had moved to Euless, Texas.
“The whole idea was to just stay in communication with her,” Sam Ronicker said. “She’s so far away and I couldn’t see her as often being restricted here, so I just started doing it to stay in touch.”
A few months after he started writing the letters, someone recommended that Ronicker should publish the letters for a book. Published in 2010, “Letters to Shelley” contains the letters Ronicker wrote to his daughter from December 2008 to December 2009.
Valdez said she was surprised to find out that he used the letters for a book, but was proud that he was writing the book.
“He has worked hard in life and is a remarkable individual,” Valdez said. “I really look up to him.”
Reading the letters gave Valdez a different perspective on Ronicker and she views him now as more of a friend instead of an authoritative father figure.
While Valdez said she doesn’t receive as many e-mails from her father as she used to, they still stay in contact and talk once every week. Valdez says that Ronicker is an effective director because of his love of working with children.
This reporter can be reached at nwalton@coxohio.com
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