Who knows how many orthodontic retainers have ended up in the cafeteria trash after lunch in all the years that kids have been wearing braces?
If all those children had a custodian like Larry Fordahl, it wouldn't matter much.
Recently, Ironwood Elementary fifth-grader Chandler Black-Napier discovered, in a panic, that he had tossed his retainers out with the leftovers from his lunch tray.
His friends could tell he was pretty upset, they said.
Classmate Brendan Lowe tried to comfort the boy during recess, he said.
"I felt bad for him when we were playing soccer, so I didn't really play anything," Brendan said.
Classmate Kyle Breed said he knew something was wrong when he was on his way out to recess and Chandler went tearing past him on his way back into the cafeteria.
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The boys and other classmates told their teacher about the lost retainers as soon as recess was over.
"I was pretty scared," Chandler said.
That's when Fordahl - known as "Mr. Larry" around the school at 3300 W. Freer Drive, in Marana Unified School District - got a call on his walkie-talkie.
He heard a teacher's voice say, "Mr. Larry?" in a sheepish sort of way, he said.
When he got the news that a student had lost his retainer, Fordahl headed to the Dumpster where all the trash was thrown from that day's lunch.
Chandler felt better when he knew "Mr. Larry" was on the job, he said, but he was still doubtful.
"They're (the retainers are) really small, so I didn't think he would find them," he said.
Fordahl knew the prized piece of orthodontia wasn't likely to be in the top layer of eight or so bags - sixth-graders ate lunch after fifth-graders, so that waste was likely to be theirs. He pulled all the bags off the top and set them aside.
With help from cafeteria manager Holly Smith, he began picking through the next layer of bags.
The upper retainer was in the second bag he opened.
He washed it off, had Chandler summoned to the office, and gave it to him.
"When I gave it to him, he was very appreciative and said, 'Did you find the other one?' " Fordahl recalled.
Oh.
Then Chandler told him not to worry - Fordahl would never find it because it's completely clear.
Fordahl went back to digging, mostly through discarded macaroni covered in tomato sauce.
"You can't see it. It's clear," he said. "When you feel something hard, you go, 'There it is!' "
And there it was, less than an hour after being so unceremoniously discarded from Chandler's lunch tray.
"I was amazed," Chandler said. So were his parents, who sent Fordahl a thank-you note and a Wal-Mart gift card for his troubles.
Fordahl said people asked him why he did it when that's not what he's paid to do.
But you shouldn't have to pay people to be decent human beings, he said.
Other students have tales of great feats Fordahl performs as a regular part of a day. He gets rid of bees and snakes. He cleans. He puts up lighting for school festivals. He fixes things.
"He's probably got the hardest job in the whole school," Kyle said.
Classmate Anias Lee called him "the best custodian ever" and said, "Every time we kick the soccer ball over the fence where we can't get it, he'll go get it for us."
David Worden, another fifth-grader, remembered a time when he was supposed to play in an evening concert at the school but realized he'd left his sheet music in his classroom. Without it, he wouldn't be able to play, he said.
Fordahl walked David through the campus, opening gates and unlocking doors along the way, to the boy's classroom where he retrieved the music.
"He's just so willing to jump in and do whatever needs to be done," said Ironwood Principal Eric Abrams. "He's so opposite of, 'Hey, that's not my job.' "
If anything, his biggest struggle is keeping Fordahl from doing too much, Abrams said.
He can't let Fordahl exceed his hours without paying overtime, and there's no money to pay overtime, so sometimes he has to put his foot down to stay within the law, he said.
Fordahl said it's his job to be as uplifting with the kids as possible.
"You don't know what the kids' day or week started like. You don't know what they're going through at home. Everyone likes someone to smile at them," he said. "It could change your whole day."
"He's probably got the hardest job in the whole school."
Kyle Breed, student
Contact reporter Shelley Shelton at sshelton@azstarnet.com or 807-8464.
