| Steve Blow: Real life suits them just fine 01/14/2001 By / The Dallas Morning News Of all the reality programs, the episode Rick Hart liked best was the one where he captured a cop killer.
Of all the reality programs, the one Cynthia Yandell remembers best was the time she unzipped the body bag and tenderly washed the face of a dead man.
What? You don't remember those episodes?
Of course not. Those weren't TV shows. They were reality as in "real life."
Another slew of TV reality programs is upon us. Millions tune in for Temptation Island, The Mole and Survivor.
Meanwhile, others plug in to reality programs of a very different sort.
Trauma in real life
When Rick Hart wants to experience the world of law enforcement, he doesn't turn on Cops. He straps on a gun belt.
By day, Rick oversees technology systems for the Southern Baptist Annuity Board. Several nights a month, he is Sgt. Hart of the Richardson Police Department's Reserve Unit.
"Business pays the bills, but law enforcement is what I enjoy," he said.
He has been a reserve officer for almost 20 years now. But his best memory is one from early on.
A sheriff's deputy had been killed, and Rick was part of the manhunt. Suddenly, the suspect stood before him.
"I yelled at him, 'Freeze.' He stopped and put his hands up, but then he turned away from me and his hands started down. I was sure he was going for a gun. I yelled, 'Freeze or you're dead.' Fortunately, he believed me."
When Cynthia Yandell wants the drama of a hospital emergency room, she doesn't turn on TV's Trauma. She reports to Parkland Memorial Hospital.
"I've always loved medicine," she said. So after her husband died three years ago, she began volunteering at Parkland. ER proved a perfect fit.
"Nothing bothers me – and I've seen it all," she said.
Her most memorable moment came after heroic but futile efforts to save a middle-age man thrown through the windshield of his car. Only after he had been pronounced dead did the family arrive, wanting to see him.
Cynthia and an ER clerk somehow knew their duty. "So we unzipped the body bag and we washed his face. And I don't think anything has ever moved me like that," she said. "It was such a simple act of love."
Real opportunities
Joining these sorts of reality programs requires a little more effort than turning on the television. But not much more.
The Volunteer Center exists just to match people with the hundreds of "reality programs" out there (214-826-6767 or www.non-profits.org).
I got a touching note last week from the librarian at an elementary school in a very poor part of East Dallas.
"One of our school volunteers, an older adult, just passed away from complications from surgery," Ann Love wrote. "He was a great man.
"Joe Pearce began volunteering at J.W. Ray Learning Center in 1994. The kids called him 'Mr. Joe.'
"If a child had a problem, he was always there for him or her.
"When Stephanie, a little second-grader, broke her leg playing in the housing project and had to be in the hospital for two weeks, Mr. Joe went every day and read to her and let her read to him.
"If any child had a special need, Mr. Joe would be sure that it was taken care of – like Tony, the homeless boy, who needed a coat.
"Joe and his wife, Mary, came to each sixth-grade 'graduation' and cheered the children on as they prepared to go to middle school.
"Mr. Joe will be missed."
Isn't that a lovely way to be remembered?
So much better than: "He watched a lot of television."
Steve Blow can be reached at 214-977-8374 or .
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