ART IMITATES LIFE IN TALE OF JANITOR'S TRIUMPH.Byline: Dennis McCarthy Dennis McCarthy may refer to:
Rich Donato squirms a little as he watches a videotape of a recent visit he made to the set of a movie being filmed in Vancouver, Canada. It's about a popular school custodian - a high school dropout (1) On magnetic media, a bit that has lost its strength due to a surface defect or recording malfunction. If the bit is in an audio or video file, it might be detected by the error correction circuitry and either corrected or not, but if not, it is often not noticed by the human from New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of - who's about to lose his job out here in the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. because he doesn't have a diploma. When they learn about it, the kids, teachers and office workers in the school rally around their beloved custodian. Some of the teachers give up their lunch hours and recesses to tutor him for his last shot at a high school equivalency equivalency the combining power of an electrolyte. See also equivalent. test, while the kids write letters of support - telling him not to give up, he can do it. The day of the big test finally comes, and the custodian doesn't let his school down. After failing four previous times, he scores an 81, just passing. If it's done right, this movie could be to school custodians what ``Stand By Me'' was to teachers. A real shot in the arm. ``He's a little taller than I am, but other than that, I think we're pretty close, don't you think?'' Donato says Wednesday, laughing as the tape shows him kidding around on the set with the film's star, actor Lou Diamond Master Gunnery Sergeant Leland "Lou" Diamond USMC (May 30 1890 – September 20 1951) is famous within the US Marine Corps as the classic example of the "Old Breed" - tough, hard-fighting career Marines who served in the Corps in the years between World War I and World War II. Phillips. Humor humor, according to ancient theory, any of four bodily fluids that determined man's health and temperament. Hippocrates postulated that an imbalance among the humors (blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile) resulted in pain and disease, and that good health was is one of the ways Donato - a modest, humble 40-year-old father of three - deals with some of the mild embarrassment he says he's feeling about having a movie made of his life story. After all, how many school custodians ever hit the TV or silver screen unless they're wielding axes and chopping up people? ``When I arrived on the set, I could hear someone say over the walkie talkies that the real Rich Donato was here,'' he said. ``There was a big hush in the crowd, like I was a star or something. Crazy, huh?'' Not really. In many ways, Donato is a star. More important than any movie, sports or media star. He's starring everyday in a real-life drama - helping keep kids in school by showing them his way - dropping out - was the loser's way. And showing a lot of their parents, who also dropped out of school, that it's never too late or too much work to go back and do it right. It was two years ago this month that I first wrote about Donato, and what the kids and teachers over at Calahan Street Elementary School elementary school: see school. in Northridge were doing for him. How they had motivated and tutored him, slowly getting his score up from a weak 41 to a 50, then to 64 and 76 - only five points shy of passing. Finally, on his last try, he hit 81. The column touched a nerve. It was run in many newspapers nationally, in addition to Readers Digest. And many TV news stations featured Donato on their broadcasts. Almost overnight, he had become the most famous school custodian in the nation. ``That column changed my life,'' Donato said, turning off the tape of his visit to the set of the movie where he has a cameo cameo (kăm`ēō), small relief carving, usually on striated precious or semiprecious stones or on shell. The design, often a portrait head, is commonly cut in the light-colored vein, and the dark one is left as the background. appearance as a parent. ``At first, I hated it (the notoriety),'' Donato said. ``All of a sudden everybody was looking at me like I was someone special, even my softball softball, variant of baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Invented (1888) in Chicago as an indoor game, it was at various times called indoor baseball, mush ball, playground ball, kitten ball, and, because it was also played by women, ladies' buddies and my own kids. ``Then parents started coming up to me and telling me they didn't have high school diplomas A high school diploma is a diploma awarded for the completion of high school. In the United States and Canada, it is considered the minimum education required for government jobs and higher education. An equivalent is the GED. , either. We talked about how difficult it was getting back to school when you're also trying to raise a family and work. ``A lot of these parents told me that my story had inspired them to try to get their diplomas, too,'' he said. ``That's when I stopped hating the attention and started feeling awfully good about it.'' Principal Rick Wetzell says the kids at Calahan were excited about getting to meet Phillips, who spent a few weeks following Donato around school to capture his character. ``We're having a contest and giving a $50 gift certificate to the student who comes up with the best title for the movie,'' Wetzell said. The titles will be sent to Heart Productions Inc., the British Columbia British Columbia, province (2001 pop. 3,907,738), 366,255 sq mi (948,600 sq km), including 6,976 sq mi (18,068 sq km) of water surface, W Canada. Geography company making the movie, which is due for release late this year. It has still not been determined if the film will be a motion picture or TV movie, said Donato, who was paid for the rights to his story. He says the film's producers have taken some liberties with his tale - like changing his campus from an elementary school to a high school - but, by and large, he recognizes himself up there on the screen. Recognizes the brash brash (brash) heartburn. water brash heartburn with regurgitation of sour fluid or almost tasteless saliva into the mouth. kid from New York who dropped out of school in his early teens to get a job. Recognizes the fear he felt more than 20 years later when it looked like he would lose the only income his family had because he didn't have that high school diploma. Recognizes how lucky he was to have the help and support of the students, teachers and administrators at Calahan Street Elementary School, who refused to let their custodian fail. CAPTION(S): photo PHOTO Rich Donato, center, shares a light moment Wednesday with staff at Calahan Street Elementary School in Northridge. A film is being made of Donato's life. Tina Gerson/Daily News |
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