DATE: Sunday, April 27, 1997                TAG: 9704250290

SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER      PAGE: 02   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: RANDOM RAMBLES 

SOURCE: Tony Stein 

                                            LENGTH:   76 lines

DAVID A. DALLAGLIO IS MAKING UP FOR A SLOW START ON LIFE

The way David A. Dallaglio figures it, you approach life the same way you approach a karate match.

``You don't back away from a challenge just because it's tough,'' says the Chesapeake resident. ``The more challenges I face, the more determined I am to meet them.''

That's pretty much the way it's been through David's 29 years. When he was born, the delivery process was slow and his brain didn't get enough oxygen. It left him with what doctors called ``mild, diffuse brain damage.'' He's physically small, too - a little less than 5 feet tall.

But there's a bigness about him in his determination and his positive attitude. I learned that in 1986 when he won first prize in a contest to raise pledges for the March of Dimes. And now he's a success story with a job, a car, his own apartment and a second-degree black belt in karate. He also teaches a children's Sunday School class at Prince of Peace Catholic Church.

He works at the McDonald's restaurant on Volvo Parkway, where he's responsible for keeping the lobby shipshape. He greets customers, too, and takes special orders to people waiting in their cars. But, typically, he wanted me to be sure and mention his friend Kalvin Hawkins, who does general maintenance at the restaurant.

Wayne Godwin, who manages the McDonald's, gives David A-plus marks as an employee. ``He's a very good worker,'' Godwin says. ``He does anything you ask him to. He's very dedicated, and he has a great attitude.''

David studies and helps teach karate at the school attached to the Ocean Tumblers operation. Ray Shackelford, senior karate instructor there, calls David very reliable and says that the kids he works with like him a lot. The one gentle criticism Shackelford had was that David likes the kids so much that he needs to be a bit tougher on discipline.

The work ethic and the positive attitude that make David special have been winning applause for 10 years. In 1987, after he spent the summer as a volunteer in the city's recreation program, a supervisor said, ``He did a super, bang-up job.'' Another supervisor called him ``a talented young man who works well with children and is very giving of his time.''

His father, David H. Dallaglio, told me back back in 1987 that young David had a sixth sense about the needs of people and helping others. The father is eastern regional vice president of an energy management company called Cenerprise. He has good business connections, but the son says proudly that he found his McDonald's job on his own without help from his dad.

However, young David has long-term career ambitions. He has opened his own karate school and wanted me to mention his first student, Zachary Haney. ``He works hard, and he's very impressive,'' David said.

Talking about himself, David once told me, ``It's been sort of hard for me, but I'm sort of used to problems. I feel that the secret of my success is that I'm a positive thinker and always look at the bright side.''

Maybe a lot of us need to listen harder to David's message. I'm a worrier myself, ever ready to figure all the things that can go wrong. I have always liked the line that says, ``Let a smile be your umbrella and you're going to get very wet.'' And ``If you can keep your head while all those about you are losing theirs, you just don't understand the situation.'' Nevertheless, one of my favorite sayings was the one I heard from the long-time TV personality Art Linkletter.

During an interview years ago, he said ``Things turn out best for people who make the best of the way things turn out.'' I must admit things turned out best in one way at least. I submitted the quote to the Reader's Digest and got $35 for it.

I have always remembered what a one-time warden at the St. Brides prison in Chesapeake once said. He looked out over the grim buildings and the sharp-topped fences and talked about growing up in a tough neighborhood in Richmond. But his parents gave him a positive attitude as armor against his surroundings. ``Now,'' he said, ``some of the boys I grew up with are in this prison and I am the warden.''

Yes, all the lines about positive attitudes are cliches, but phrases usually get to be cliches because they are based on truth. Young David has used his attitude and his abilities to open a lot of doors that might have remained locked to him. He hopes eventually to make a career out of teaching people about karate. Meanwhile, he's giving the rest of us a valuable lesson in how to live our lives.

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