Employee Spotlight - Kelly Jolkowski

 

(I was recently nominated for this honor and this was the write up for our company newsletter.)

By Cheri Zagurski

“If you want to bet on a sure thing, bet on this: Kelly Jolkowski will ride a bike across Nebraska this year. That's the goal she has set for herself -- to participate in BRAN (Bike Ride Across Nebraska) -- this year. And Kelly has been setting goals and meeting them for quite a while.

Kelly came to DTN as a Weather Center customer service rep after setting the goal of getting a job that contained customer contact and technical expertise. She had worked processing claims for Mutual of Omaha, but wanted to do something with her A+ computer certification. Her brother, Larry Murphy, also a DTN employee, convinced her to apply at DTN. He told her it was a family-oriented company and a great place to work. She now agrees. I asked her what keeps her at DTN and she said, "Great people! DTN/Meteorlogix is like a family to me. As I work in Tech Support, I have many brothers. Everyone in the entire company has been so kind and gracious to me as I have had many life changes in the time I have been here. The products that we support are interesting, and the customers are great to deal with."

A devastating change that Kelly has had to deal with was the disappearance of her 19-year-old son, Jason. It will be two years this June since he vanished. Kelly said she really appreciated how well she was treated at DTN as the investigation began and continued. Her supervisors allowed different media outlets to come to DTN to interview Kelly. She was allowed time off when she needed it. DTN joined with her husband's employer, Nebraska Furniture Mart, to provide a Crimestoppers reward for information about Jason's disappearance. Unfortunately, everything has been inconclusive and the family is no closer to knowing what happened to Jason.  During her struggle to find her son, Kelly set two more goals. One was to get a law passed to assist families of missing people. It was amazing how the laws differ from state to state, she said. "Iowa has a whole law to help the families of the missing," Kelly said. Although Nebraska has some laws aimed at missing children, "unfortunately, Nebraska doesn't have a missing people law." She and her family have been working to change that, even testifying before the state legislature about their loss and experience.

In addition, Kelly helps other families who have fallen into the same nightmare. She shares, via the Internet and other outlets, advice on how to deal with losing a child emotionally, how to get press, how to get the word out. "The sheer scope of this problem is huge," she said. "When you are trying to find help for yourself, you realize just how frightening it is."

In the course of reaching out to other families, Kelly met over the Internet a mother of a missing person who inspired her to set and achieve another goal: losing weight. This mother had no idea what Kelly looked like or what her health situation was. But she said that Kelly ought to not neglect herself during this time because her son would need her to be as healthy as possible to do all the work that finding him might require.

This struck a nerve with Kelly. "Her words were haunting me," she said. Her weight had crept up over the years and she was dangerously overweight. But, after an illness and gall bladder surgery restricted her appetite, she decided it would be "really dumb for me to go back to my old habits. I needed to be healthy to continue doing this [searching for Jason]," she said. "It takes such a toll on you -- mind, body and spirit."

So she set a goal. "I made a very firm commitment, because I needed to do this not just for Jason but for me. Sometimes when the going would get tough, I would think of him," Kelly said. She has reached her goal, losing 200 pounds through a combination of Weight Watchers at Work, exercise and sheer determination. Her exercise program began with "walking around the building," she said. Then she added strength training and after that, cycling. As she increased her cycling distance, she added another goal: biking 100 miles in one day. One day, she actually rode 105 miles. Kelly calls herself "the accidental long-distance cyclist" because she never intended to participate in lengthy rides. But she found she had a lot of endurance and strength. "I've never been athletic a day in my life," she said. "Finally at age 42 I've done something athletic and it feels great." Which leads us to her goal of riding in BRAN.

Now that Kelly has reached her Weight Watchers goal, she can utilize DTN's health club membership benefit to join a gym. Previously, she was using that benefit to pay for half of her Weight Watchers dues. She has joined the YMCA and is working out on their strength training machines, focusing on the lower body in order to help her reach her BRAN goal. "It's one thing to ride 105 miles in one day," she said. "It's another to do 455 miles in 7 days with hills, etc. That's going to be really tough."

I think she'll make it.”

 

This is an excerpt from the speech we gave before the Senate in an effort to get a law passed in our state to assist families of the missing:

 

I speak to you today on behalf of one of our state's most valuable assets, the family. There is nothing more important to the future of our state than its people, citizens that are well rounded, having that sense of pride of being a member of the larger family of Nebraskans that stems from the good values instilled in us from our individual families. We must work hard together to assist our state's families in any way that we can to ensure continued growth, and that Nebraska always remain "the good life". We owe this service to our families!

 Sometime after Jason's disappearance, we decided even if we never find Jason, we want to help other families with missing loved ones. Please consider that over a year ago we could never have imagined that we would be a family with a missing loved one. Tomorrow some other family may wake up and find themselves in that same boat. What if that family was yours?

 There is an area lacking in state law that can impact thousands of citizens each year. These citizens include entire families that have a missing loved one, whether that person is a child, or an adult.  In the year 2001, there were over 6,000 reported missing people in the state. There are very limited avenues to pursue for families of missing adults. Currently, the only law covering missing persons in the State of Nebraska is LB 333~6, which flags vital statistic records for children age 16 and under. Nebraska now has the Amber Alert, but that is limited to assistance for age 15 and under. Although this is good and necessary, clearly there is much more that can be done, and should be done, to assist our families. The Amber Alert was recently issued with positive results, and the same can hold true for Jason's Law.

 Public awareness & timing is key in missing person’s cases. The clearinghouse will serve to disseminate information about missing people of all ages, in a timely & efficient manner. Having the clearinghouse will have effects that even go beyond the basic intent. Law enforcement across the state will have a uniform means of submitting information about the missing, making efficiencies across the board and avoiding vital omissions. Having the information sent to a central repository will also increase the odds of finding the missing person as their faces will be made public much faster. You cannot understate the benefits of quick intervention in these cases. The model Washington State Patrol picks up the slack for the missing-person unit. Last year only $4,800 was spent for "goods and services" needed to maintain unit operations.

 Had Jason’s Law already been in effect, it could have had an impact on the events that occurred recently in Gering, when young Heather Guerrero was kidnapped & murdered. Jason’s Law would provide ongoing training of law enforcement officials statewide so that they would better handle situations that compromise the lives of our citizens, including kidnapping.  Beat cops, dispatchers and clerks are often the first authorities to learn of a disappearance, but few have specialized training to recognize clues that a missing person might be a crime victim or could be in need of immediate help. How many Heathers, Ginas and Jasons must we have before we take action?

Just for a moment, I would like you to close your eyes and envision someone that you love dearly, someone very close to you. Think about what it would feel like if suddenly and without warning or being able to say goodbye, that person was gone from your life, and you have no idea what happened to them. Your life becomes a waking nightmare as you try to deal with your constant worries and fears for your loved one, but yet in the midst of that you try figure out what to do to have them back, safe in your arms. Jason’s Law would help get the ball rolling for these heartbroken families, and keep Nebraska’s most valuable asset, the family, intact.

 I'm a mother with a dream. I dream that one day my son will stand before me. I dream that I walk slowly towards him, unsure if what I am seeing is real. I look around me to be sure, and I slowly reach out to touch him. In my waking dreams, he then disappears, but in the dream that I hope will be real, I touch him, find that he is real, and oh so very alive, and I embrace him with the powerful love a of a mother for her child.

 You have the power to make my dream, which is the same dream that every family member of a missing person has, become a reality.  Thank you.

 

This is a reprint of the column featured in the Omaha World Herald on Friday, April 18, 2003:

 

Rainbow Rowell: Missing son helps save life of mom

BY RAINBOW ROWELL

 

WORLD-HERALD COLUMNIST
When Jason Jolkowski disappeared two years ago, his mother realized she would have to fight for him. Fight to convince the police that Jason wasn't a runaway. Fight to make the press care. Fight to keep his story alive.

She wasn't ready.

 

When the reporters came to the door, Kelly would disappear into the house. She couldn't be on TV, not the 375-pound woman.

 

How could she fight when she could hardly walk?

 

Kelly had always been chubby. She gained 60 pounds when Jason was born in 1981. She lost some of it then, but the weight kept creeping back.

 

And Kelly didn't do anything to stop it. She didn't know where to start. Until Jason disappeared.

 

Another mother Kelly met on a missing persons Web site - someone who had never seen her and didn't know how much she weighed - gave Kelly the motivation she needed to lose weight.

If you are going to help Jason, she said, you have to take care of yourself. Because it's going to be hard and it's going to be tiring, and if you are weak, you won't make it.

 

"I just got this determination that I could do it," Kelly said. "There was nothing more important - other than finding Jason - than being healthy."

So that has been her focus for two years, finding Jason and being healthy.

 

For Jason, she established a Web site - www.missingjason.com - and passed out his photo. She led have-you-seen- Jason? e-mail campaigns.

 

She and her husband, Jim, are asking the Legislature for a law that would make it easier for law enforcement to share information about missing people.

And after months and months of pushing, they have persuaded a national TV show to do a segment on Jason. The Jolkowskis hope to appear on "The John Walsh Show" this summer.

 

For herself, Kelly has lost 200 pounds.

"People say, 'You lost weight because you were stressed out,'" she said. "That wasn't it."

Kelly began by eating less and walking during her lunch hour at work. Last year she joined Weight Watchers and started strength training.

 

Using the skills she learned designing Jason's Web site, she developed another site to tell the story of her weight loss - www.members.cox.net/incredibleshrinkingwoman

She has changed beyond losing the 200 pounds. She's transformed herself. Always the kid picked last in gym class, Kelly is now training to ride in this year's Bike Ride Across Nebraska.

 

When she looks in the mirror today, she can hardly believe her own reflection.

Would Jason even know her if he came home tomorrow? "Would he walk by me and not recognize me?"

She owes him her life.

 

"I'm quite sure I was killing myself."

 

It's not how she wanted to be saved - by losing her son - but that's how it happened.

If only she could just step outside and shout, Jason, I'm better, come see. Come home. It's my turn to save you.

* * *

 

Jason Jolkowski was last seen June 13, 2001, walking near 48th Street and Bedford Avenue. He was wearing a white Chicago Cubs or Sammy Sosa T-shirt.

He was 19 when he disappeared, 6-foot-1 and 165 pounds.

If you have any information about Jason, call Omaha Crime Stoppers at 444-STOP.