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Jeff Drushal - Big Brother, Little Brother Forge Relationship

Wednesday, October 22, 2008 By Monetta L. Harr - Citizen Patriot

Jeff Drushal has piggybacked his hobby on his occupation. He is a welder who creates metal artwork in his spare time. He is gradually teaching 12-year-old Jacob Dangler how to weld some things, and it’s safe to say Jacob is impressed.

“There really is a sense of power,” Jacob said. “You take two pieces of metal and put them together. It’s almost like defeating the law of nature.”

Drushal, 26, and Jacob, both of Jackson, made a metal sculpture they named “Reaching for the Stars” that will be auctioned Saturday at the Big Brothers Big Sisters fundraiser - Comedy for Kids Sake 2008.

“I got the idea from the BBBS logo,” Drushal said about the piece. The two were matched as Big and Little Brother nearly a year ago. “My uncle was a Big Brother about 15 years ago, and I thought that was pretty cool,” said Drushal, who works at Brockie Fabricating, 1027 Hurst Road.

“I’m really a big kid at heart, and this has been really cool for me,” he said. This is also Jacob’s first venture as a Little Brother, a suggestion he said came from a former school principal.

“I really didn’t have an opinion about it. I just went along with it,” he said. Jacob working on Sculpture Now, though, he can’t say enough about how spending time with Drushal has changed his life.

“When I don’t understand something, I ask Jeff and he explains it to me. He tells me that rules are rules and life is life, and that’s how it works,” Jacob said.

The other day, Jacob said he talked to Drushal about attending college to become a veterinarian and doing welding in his spare time. Their relationship isn’t lost on Erica Vogel, executive director of BBBS.

“Jeff is one of our younger mentors, which is really nice for a soon-to-be teenager. He is young and enthusiastic, and they do really neat things together,” Vogel said.

An example was last spring when BBBS hosted a fundraiser that involved bowling. People were asked to raise money ahead of time and bring it to the bowling alley. The prize for the person raising the most was an iPod, something Drushal knew Jacob really wanted for his birthday.

“Jeff worked really hard to raise the money, and for a time we thought he was the top fundraiser. Then someone came in with more money but when that person realized how hard Jeff had worked, he switched prizes with Jeff. It was really neat,” Vogel said.

Reprinted from Jackson Citizen Patriot.

Tags: Jeff Drushal, Jeff Drushal Studio 13