truly, a class act

Darkness had finally descended that rainy Friday evening a fortnight ago, and all Brad Cooke saw before him as he moved in fits and starts along a heavily congested stretch of interstate highway just west of Williamsburg was an endless string of tail lights.

The sponsor of Outdoor Collegiate, Cooke was at the wheel of a 2012 Ford F-150 Lariat crew cab pickup, towing a trailer with surfboards, paddleboards, and whitewater kayaks, en route with his group to the Outer Banks.

Suddenly, the vehicles before him came to a halt, or as much of a halt as you can come to when you’re stuck in a vintage I-64 traffic jam at five miles per hour.

Cooke heard the thud. He felt the jolt.

In an instant, he knew that the Collegiate minibus behind him carrying 13 students had bumped the trailer and he needed to get everyone out of harm’s way as quickly as possible.

“It wasn’t a scary accident,” he explained, “because we were going at such a low speed.

“The chaperones (Cooke, Tim Lengel, and Sarah and Alex Peavey) checked the kids. They were fine.”

The impact drove the trailer off the hitch, destroyed the coupler (the hitch mechanism), and propelled the trailer into the truck’s bumper.

The safety chains connecting the trailer to the truck were intact, so Cooke was able to pull his vehicle onto the shoulder.

“It was raining and dark, and we were on the side of the interstate,” Cooke continued. “There was no way we could reattach the trailer.

“We decided to get the kids out of there, so we transferred everything in the truck to the bus, put the other chaperones on the bus, and continued on to the Outer Banks.”

In the meantime, Cooke made a phone call.

“I had JP’s number,” he said, “so I called him. He sprang into action.”

JP DiGiacomo is Collegiate’s transportation supervisor.

When his cell phone rang at around 8:30 p.m., he was relaxing in his easy chair in his sun room, flipping channels, and shutting down his day because he had an early wake-up call the next.

His wife Tara and 6-year-old daughter Serena had already gone to bed.

Their home, by the way, is in Sutherland, a town in Dinwiddie County just west of Petersburg on Lake Chesdin.

It’s a good 45 minutes from Collegiate and an hour-and-15 minutes from the spot where Cooke was stranded.

Rain was falling there as well.

“I knew that we had some decisions to make,” DiGiacomo said. “Brad snapped some pictures with his phone and sent them to me. I could tell it (the coupler) was put on with bolts. Some of them were welded. That wouldn’t be an on-site repair.”

DiGiacomo could have called a tow truck. He could have told Cooke to leave the trailer on the side of the busy interstate. He could have said, “Tough luck.”

Instead, he hopped in his Ford F-150, found an Advance Auto Parts store in the town of Edgehill just before it closed, purchased a coupler, and headed into the gloomy night for Lightfoot.

He arrived around 10:15.

Using Cooke’s head lamp and the light of DiGiacomo’s vehicle, the two went to work to repair the damage.

“It’s raining fairly significantly at this point,” said Cooke, an Upper School history teacher. “There’s no more traffic jam. Trucks are whizzing by at 75 miles an hour. 

“We’re out there in this nasty environment, and JP’s wailing away with a hammer. The piece he bought was maybe a 32nd of an inch off, just enough to get you super-frustrated. 

“The guy never frowned, which is also why he’s such a rock star.”

Around 10:30, Cooke and DiGiacomo decided to transfer as much gear as possible into the school pickup.

The task took another hour or so.

“We loaded everything but the kayaks,” Cooke said. “There were boards everywhere: in the front seat, the back seat, the bed, on the top.

“Then, we hooked the trailer to JP’s truck so he could essentially limp it back to Richmond.”

Cooke drove on to the Outer Banks. He arrived at 2:45 a.m.

DiGiacomo re-settled into his chair just after 1 a.m. 

At 5:45 a.m., he was at Collegiate, coordinating transportation to Washington, D.C., for the International Emerging Leaders Conference participants.

“I didn’t actually go to bed,” he said. “Just dozed in my chair.

“It worked out that I didn’t have to drive and could sleep on and off on the bus.

“That night at the hotel, I slept very well.”

So that’s the adventure.

The message is much more important.

“A friend of mine, Bill Campbell, has been in the towing business for 40 years,” DiGiacomo said. “He always said, ‘JP, one thing that’s served me well…it’s 24/7. Be available when people need you.’

“I’ve modeled myself in this job by that. Collegiate isn’t a 9-to-5 place. You go when you have to go, do what you have to do.

“I’m good with that.”

For Cooke, the experience has a much deeper meaning.

“There’s a sense of community here,” he said. “We make sure the kids are safe and healthy. 

“When I called JP, there was no hesitation. It speaks not only to his character but to the character of the school

“We take care of each other.”