Lyle Bauman of Dining Services—and the namesake of Lyle’s Pub—shares his stories of saving lives as a volunteer EMT

Most Grinnellians, regardless of whether or not they have worked at the Dining Hall, have somehow come into contact with Lyle Bauman. Beyond his work as a Marketplace Supervisor in the JRC, Bauman is also a student favorite and the namesake of Lyle’s Pub. Outside of the College, however, Bauman also manages to find time to volunteer in the community and has a long list of organizations that he has worked with.

“I guess [my volunteer work] started back in the early eighties when I was a Scout Master. I’m still pretty active in church,” Bauman said. “Also, for 18 years I was on the Brooklyn Volunteer Fire Department, and then for 16 years I was an emergency medical technician on the East Poweshiek County Ambulance Service.”

In particular, Bauman recalls most vividly his experiences serving as an EMT. Though he is now no longer state-certified due to scheduling conflicts, he remains an honorary EMT.

“Some of that stuff, you just always remember,” he said. “I have had incidents on the ambulance services change my life in a dramatic way. Of all the volunteer work I’ve done, I think it was the most rewarding, but also the saddest.”

As a volunteer EMT, Bauman went through various daily rigors.

“At the beginning of every EMT class, the first thing they would make us do was say, ‘We are not God and we cannot save every life,’” Bauman said. “They drilled that into our head. [It’s awful] when you go out on a call where there were fatalities, but there’s been some calls where I’m convinced that I helped save a life or two.”

This volunteer opportunity was not something that Bauman necessarily went looking for, but something that found him.

“It’s kind of funny,” he said of his motivation for joining. “I was at a restaurant, and this lady started choking. There were probably 50 or 60 people there, and no one knew what to do. That blew me away.”

Bauman went on to tell the beginning of his involvement in volunteering to help save people’s lives.

“It just so happens, the following week in the paper, there was an ad looking for volunteers on the ambulance.” he said. “At that time I had a little more flexibility [in my schedule], so I thought, ‘You know what, I can help somebody.’ So I called them up, and it was one of the best things I ever did in my life.”

If any students are interested in a similar type of volunteer work, Bauman stressed that there are many classes available and that more helpers are always welcome. However, Bauman also added that there are, of course, also many opportunities in different fields.

“There’s so much volunteer work that can be done,” Bauman said. “A lot of the services and things that we are so lucky in the community to have would not exist without volunteers. They do tremendous things.”

Newport carries on her family’s devotion to arts as Vice President of GAAC, enriching art programs in community

Connie Newport is one of many friendly faces you’ll find if you pay a visit to the John Chrystal Center. Besides being a resident of Grinnell and an employee of the College Admissions office, Newport involves herself in the Grinnell community in another major way—through volunteer work.

“I’m the vice president of the [Grinnell Area Arts] Council. It’s been really exciting for me,” she said. “I’m an avid supporter of the arts—it’s something I’m really passionate about.”

Looking at Newport’s family, one can see that the devotion to the arts runs deep. Newport’s husband recently retired from being one of Grinnell High School’s band directors, and the couple continues to play in the community band. Their daughter, a theatre major at Knox College, directed a play through the Arts Council this summer.

The Grinnell Area Arts Council (GAAC) organizes many different types of events throughout the year. Besides hosting art shows and having an artist-in-residence, the Council works to offer workshops and classes open to the community. The GAAC building also hosts after school programs, such as the Babel Tower program for foreign languages and the Arts Academy, and may soon expand to music courses as well.

“We all know that the arts don’t often have the funding in the public schools that we would like to see, so this offers an opportunity for students who want to do something after school,” Newport said. “I think it’s a nice complement to what the [local schools] are offering.”

Newport has recently been doing a lot of work with the Council’s new building. When the Drake Community Library was built, the Council decided to rent the old Stewart Library building from the City.

“It’s a beautiful building, and I hated to see it sit empty,” Newport said. “We’ve been in there for [almost] a year now.”

While the building has its benefits, such as an intricate tiled floor that was discovered under some less-attractive old carpet, it is also in need of a lot of work until it can meet the Council’s standards, much of which is still ongoing.

“We’ve been doing a lot of interior work,” she said. “It’s been kind of fun, but there’s a lot to be done. It’s a combination of what we can do with the finances we have and what we can do with the volunteer labor that we have.”

For any students, faculty, staff or community members who are interested in helping to promote supports for the arts in or around Grinnell, Newport pointed out that the Council can always find a use for volunteers.

“A number of students help with teaching classes, but we are always looking for [more] people to help out. The best thing to do is to contact Judy Arendt at the Arts Center, she has kind of an ongoing list of things that people can help with, or if they email me, I would be glad to guide them in the right direction.”

Students are welcome and encouraged to attend events at the Arts Center. Upcoming events include a fashion show on Monday and, next Saturday, a bagpipe concert with Turlach Ur.

“The building is open to the general public Monday through Friday,” Newport said. “We also have events on the weekends. Students should feel free to stop by and check it out—I think that the opportunities that we offer are endless.”