Through a child's eyes

Family finds hope on a Boldt project

By Seth Jovaag

Jordan Ellenbecker (left) and his sister, Kyla, inspect a piece of equipment on Boldt’s Ripon College construction site. Photo courtesy of The Boldt Company

Last summer saw some big changes at tiny Ripon College.

For one thing, the campus of 1,000 students was in the throes of a three-year, $20 million facelift that includes a new residence hall, a revamped student union, new parking lots and more.

“This is by far the biggest continuously phased construction effort we’ve had,” said Bob Young, a professor of psychology who doubles as the school’s construction manager. “It has been extremely busy.”

But while general contractor Oscar J. Boldt Construction, a division of Appleton-based The Boldt Company, was hustling all summer to get the 150-plus-year-old campus up and running by the first day of classes, a couple of tiny onlookers were making progress of their own.

Jordan Ellenbecker, 3, and his sister, Kyla, 2, live across the street and a few doors down from the school’s new residence hall.

Both kids struggle with different disabilities. Jordan has cerebral palsy, orthotic braces on both legs and has suffered a stroke that impairs his ability to speak, among other things. Kyla, meanwhile, has poor vision and required surgery a couple months ago to repair muscles around her eyes.

Jordan Ellenbecker gets a close look at some construction equipment as he sits on the lap of his grandmother, Catherine Ellenbecker. Photo courtesy of The Boldt Company

The kids live with their mom, Colleen Ellenbecker, 24, a full-time student at Ripon, and their grandparents, Tom and Catherine Ellenbecker.

It was last summer, the Ellenbeckers said, that the kids — and Jordan in particular — made some miraculous developmental strides that the Ellenbeckers attribute largely to the construction project at Ripon.

As Colleen tells it, Catherine was out walking with the kids one day last spring when she noticed Jordan perk up at the sound of the rumbling machinery working at Ripon.

“We’d gotten him a [toy] dump truck before, so he knew what they were in little forms,” Colleen said. “But he’d never seen one close up … He was like, ‘Ooooh!’”

Suddenly, Jordan was obsessed. Every day — often several times a day — mom, grandma or grandpa would load the kids in a coaster wagon or stroller and head for the job site, where Boldt workers would point out a good spot from which to watch the action.

“When they got near that construction site and those construction vehicles, they lit up,” said Kathleen Langlois, a senior project engineer with Boldt. “If you ever saw children completely filled with joy … it was amazing to see.”

Catherine Ellenbecker and her grandson, Jordan, head offon a walk to Boldt’s construction project at Ripon College. Photo courtesy of Catherine Ellenbecker

In July, family members saw what they called dramatic changes in Jordan.

For one thing, he started saying the word “scoop” at the site of a backhoe. And later, he put together his first two-syllable word: “digger.”

It might not sound like much, but Colleen said the new words were major breakthroughs.

“It triggered a lot more of his vocalization,” she said. “He’s now up to about 50 words that he can say,” including some short sentences such as, “I like digger!”

As the summer wore on, the Ellenbeckers watched as Boldt crews erected the 27,000-square-foot residence hall, or the family ventured a little farther to watch excavation around the administration building or for a new parking lot. Catherine said that Kyla would practice her “Miss America wave” to workers, while Jordan would constantly say, “Hi Scoop! Hi Digger!”

With Ripon’s building boom, “we had no trouble finding someone doing something,” said Tom Ellenbecker, who also works maintenance at the college.

All the activity also spurred Jordan to walk more, Catherine said, as he began to develop a measured gait and even broke out into irregular runs.

“Walking to and from the machines, it has really helped with his mobility,” Colleen said.

Jordan and Kyla Ellenbecker (sitting) and their grandmother, Catherine, join Boldt personnel (from left) Curt Reimer, Kelly Drews, Art “Butch” Klauer and Milo Miller. Photo courtesy of The Boldt Company

It almost helped too much. One morning before anyone else was awake, Jordan managed to crawl out of bed, venture downstairs and get past a baby-proof gate that led outdoors. He was on his way to see “scoop” and “digger” before a neighbor spotted him outside and brought him back, Colleen said with a laugh.

“Overall, he’s just made a lot of progress,” she said.

That progress is only a start, of course. Jordan still sees between 10 and 12 specialists every month, and it’s hard to say how far he’ll advance mentally and physically as he gets older, Colleen said.

But the family is grateful for what advances he has made. And they’re thankful to Boldt workers for taking time out to interact with the kids or point out safe places to watch the construction unfold.

The feeling is mutual, said Steve Labus, field superintendent for Boldt.

“Once we heard their story, some of the guys were markedly moved by it,” Labus said. “I think some took a certain amount of pride in it.

“Without any real intention, by just being who they were, they had some impact on these kids.”