THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 31, 1996 TAG: 9610290148
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KATHRYN DARLING, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 92 lines
GROWING UP IN the '50s, Clarence Bunch didn't know he had a disability.
No one even ever told him he had cerebral palsy.
Now, for the last 22 years, Bunch has helped others overcome adversity. Bunch, 54, works in Norfolk as a counselor for the emotionally, physically and mentally handicapped for the Virginia Department of Rehabilitative Services.
As a boy, even with his difficult speech, wide gait and the uncontrollable muscle movements in his right shoulder, his having cerebral palsy wasn't an issue.
He never even thought about it, he says.
``I was jolly and bubbly. I shot for the top - I didn't even realize I had a disability,'' he says.
Bunch now lives in the Broad Creek area of Norfolk with his wife, Cheryl, principal of the Berkley/Campostella Early Childhood Center, and his daughter, Velma, a senior at Norview High School.
He grew up with what he says is the key to survival for a person with a disability - ``a good support system.''
His mother and grandmother were elementary school principals, and Bunch was active in school and in the tight-knit community he lived in near Booker T. Washington High School.
Like most boys his age, Bunch loved sports. He swam, played recreational football and was on his high school junior varsity basketball team.
After college, he married, pursued a master's degree and taught on the college level.
He achieved every goal he ever reached for until he entered a doctoral program at the University of Virginia in 1973.
Taking notes in class had always been difficult for Bunch, but compensating for that never had been a problem. He either taped the classes or borrowed notes from a classmate. And teachers had always given him time to finish written exams.
In this setting, however, Bunch wasn't allowed to tape his classes. He tried to borrow notes from fellow students, but the only one who would share with him was a women with dyslexia. He found it impossible to make sense of her notes. He could type his papers, but he was a much slower typist than most people, and he couldn't keep up with the workload.
For the first time, Bunch couldn't reach a goal he had set for himself. A friend at Virginia who worked in rehab suggested he pursue a different path.
Bunch took his suggestion and has been a rehabilitation counselor with the Department of Rehabilitative Services in Norfolk for 22 years. Once he got into the field he liked it, and he wanted to help people achieve their vocational potential, he says.
Bunch has a caseload of 51 people with mental, emotional and physical handicaps. He counsels and channels them into evaluation, training and job resources.
This month, Bunch brought four men with spinal cord injuries whom he has counseled to a Men on the Move workshop. The meeting, at the Berkley/Campostella Early Childhood Center, was to educate the fathers about National Disability Employment Awareness month.
Bunch has helped the four find resources for equipment they need, and get occupational and vocational training.
Barry Peebles, 28, who broke his neck making a tackle in a friendly football game, credits Bunch's perseverance for getting him advanced training he needed.
After his accident, Peebles went to the Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center in Fishersville, Va., to learn to adjust to the lifestyle of a quadriplegic disability. When that training was finished, he returned to Norfolk and lived in a nursing home.
Peebles needed additional occupational training so he could learn to live more independently, and he needed vocational training so he could get a job. But getting into the more advanced programs at Woodrow Wilson is difficult because so many people apply.
Bunch and Peebles worked together to get him into the program, but he says Bunch ``did most of the footwork.''
Bunch's commitment didn't end when Peebles entered the training. He came every week to see Peebles and his other clients enrolled in the rehab center's programs.
After Barry returned to Norfolk, Bunch knew Peebles needed to get out of the house and to meet people, so he set him up with peer counseling at the Endependence Center, a private rehabilitation agency run mostly by people with disabilities, he says.
Bunch also counsels Pebbles about his problems and adjustments and even visits him at home.
When he is ready to pursue a job, Bunch will have a job specialist evaluate and advise Peebles about the possibilities for work.
Peebles has had training at Woodrow Wilson in accounting and computers, but he will be difficult to place in a job because of the severity of his disability, Bunch says.
``The work will have to be tailored to Barry's abilities'' he said.
But Bunch is committed to helping Peebles get back to work.
``The goal is to get the person into the job market,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by RICHARD L. DUNSTON
Clarence Bunch is a counselor for the emotionally, physically and
mentally handicapped. by CNB