Pokin Around: Blind massage therapist rehired by YMCA - Springfield News-Leader

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In 2015 Larry Boyd, 67, lost his job as a massage therapist at the Men's Wellness Center at the YMCA in downtown Springfield. Larry, who is blind, was rehired Nov. 1, 2016. Wochit

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Massage therapist Larry Boyd works on a client at the downtown YMCA on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2017. Boyd was recently rehired after being laid off in April 2016.(Photo: Andrew Jansen/News-Leader)Buy Photo


Larry Boyd, a 67-year-old massage therapist, has returned to work at the Men's Wellness Center at the downtown Springfield YMCA.

"I am very glad to be back and to see all my friends again," he tells me as he works the back muscles of a YMCA member.

Boyd doesn't actually see his friends. He has been blind since birth.

Boyd and fellow massage therapist Bob Mickle, also blind, were unceremoniously laid off by the YMCA on April 9, 2015.

Mickle, now 84, had given massages at the YMCA for 45 years. Boyd had been doing it 40 years.

Boyd returned Nov. 1 after being away for 18 months.

He tried to fill his time with an occasional paid gig of playing the piano at the Hickory Hills Country Club.

"I ran on the treadmill twice a day," he says. "I really didn't do too much."

Mickle, who was about to retire when let go, has not been interested in returning.

They lost their jobs in a cost-cutting measure. But it was the callous way they were let go that caused a furor in Springfield and among some YMCA members.

Chad Jansen, their supervisor at the time, called them into his office that day and gave them a termination letter — one in braille and one on normal stationery — and read it to them. He then told them to pack up their belongings and go home. Being blind, they had to call their spouses for rides.

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Massage therapist Larry Boyd works on a client at the downtown YMCA on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2017. Boyd was recently rehired after being laid off in April 2016. (Photo: Andrew Jansen/News-Leader)


Jansen has since left Springfield. He is now an executive director with the YMCA of Greater Kansas City, Eaton says.

The two men told me in 2015 they were stunned. This was their full-time livelihood. They had overcome their lack of sight with drive and loyalty. Retirement certainly was in their thoughts. But not like this.

Boyd had to cancel his remaining appointments that afternoon. He called his wife Bonnie for a ride home and explained why he was heading home early. She cried.

They each received a severance check for three months' salary. Their health insurance ended later that month.

Both men were beloved by many longtime members.

Boyd is back at what's called the Ward Downtown YMCA. He has returned under a different financial arrangement. He had received a salary.

He once again is a YMCA employee but this time around Wellness Center members must call him directly for appointments, according to Julie Eaton, the YMCA's director of marketing and communications.

A 40-minute massage is $10. Boyd keeps $8 and $2 goes to the YMCA.

Massages had been 30-minutes and were free with membership at the center. Since members are now charged per massage, Boyd says, he lengthened it to 40 minutes.

The expectation is that he will make most of his money on tips.

"It is not very much money," he tells me. "It is just the idea of seeing all the guys."

I ask if much has changed in 18 months.

"It just seems a little empty with all the members gone," he says. "And I miss Bob (Mickle) a lot."

Kirk Heyle, the man on the massage table, chimes in.

"It used to be like Grand Central Station here," he says. But not anymore.

Eaton says approximately 20 members of the Men's Wellness Center canceled their memberships as a direct result of the "elimination of the massage therapy program."

(Again, in talking to various members and former members, the problem was not the elimination of the program but the way it was done.)

"Each month since Larry’s return," Eaton says, "we have continued to see members joining to utilize this new on-demand service."

Guy Pollard, 86, cancelled his membership in 2015. He was angry at the way the two men were laid off. It did not match the existing YMCA culture, he says.

“I was probably the first to run in my resignation," he tells me.

Pollard re-joined in April of 2016 while working with Steve Gimenez, chief executive officer of the Ozarks Regional YMCA, to bring Boyd back.

At one point in 2016, Pollard says, it looked like the upper floors of the downtown YMCA building, at 417 S. Jefferson Ave., might be renovated into 40 apartments, many of which would be earmarked to serve low-income families and youths aging out of foster care. The building was constructed in 1918. The Men's Wellness Center would be eliminated under those plans.

The YMCA did not get the tax credits needed to proceed, Eaton tells me, but will try again in September.

In the foreseeable future the building will continue to operate as a YMCA, she says.

A few former members have trickled back since Boyd's return, Pollard says.

"It has not been overwhelming."

Thomas Quinn, a 67-year-old Springfield dentist, also was unhappy with the way Boyd and Mickle were laid off. But he did not cancel his membership.

He is glad Boyd is back. During massages, they talk football.

Boyd has a phenomenal knowledge of professional football, he says.

“Work is good for him," Quinn says. "And membership needs a boost. The downtown YMCA needs a boost."

These are the views of Steve Pokin, the News-Leader's columnist. Pokin has been at the paper five years and over the course of his career has covered just about everything — from courts and cops to features and fitness. He can be reached at 836-1253, spokin@gannett.com, on Twitter @stevepokinNL or by mail at 651 N. Boonville, Springfield, MO 65806.

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