Meet Andrew: The Heart Behind Our Flyers (and Soon, Our YouTube Channel)
Every small business has those people who just… fit. The ones who walk through the door and somehow make the whole place feel a little brighter, a little more real. For us at Integrity Plumbing, that person is Andrew.
This past summer, Andrew started with us doing something simple: passing out flyers in the neighborhoods we serve. If you got one of our bright orange flyers stuck under your wiper blade or handed to you with a quiet “have a good day,” there’s a decent chance it came from him. He’d ride his bike for miles in the Ohio heat, earbuds in, listening to Civil War podcasts, determined to cover every street on the list. No complaining, no shortcuts. Just steady, cheerful Andrew.
Pretty soon we realized something: this guy is special. Not in the inspirational-poster way people sometimes use that word, but in the genuine, I-want-him-on-our-team-forever way.
Andrew’s Journey (and What Autism Really Looks Like for Him)
Andrew was diagnosed with autism, ADHD, and anxiety when he was ten. He’ll tell you himself that some days you’d barely notice anything different, and other days the world feels like it’s turned up to eleven. Crowded rooms, sudden loud noises, too many conversations at once; those can still throw him. But the older he gets, the better he’s gotten at reading situations, finding his calm, and pushing forward anyway.
What a lot of people don’t realize about autism is that it often comes with these incredible bursts of focus and passion. For Andrew, that passion is history; specifically the Civil War and World War II. We’re talking about a kid who could name every U.S. president in order (and recite their vice presidents) long before his classmates knew what a president was. He taught himself. Books, documentaries, maps; he devoured them all.
He didn’t have a lot of friends growing up, and here’s the thing: that was okay with him. He had his books, his bike rides, and an imagination that could transport him straight onto the fields of Gettysburg or Antietam. It wasn’t until college that the social side really clicked. He earned his associate’s degree in history from Sinclair College and then his bachelor’s from Wright State University.
Where He’s Headed (and Why We’re So Excited)
If you spend five minutes with Andrew now, you’ll hear about the time his parents surprised him with a trip to Gettysburg and he cried happy tears in the car before they even crossed the Pennsylvania state line. He’s been to more than ten battlefields (and can tell you which ones still give him chills when the wind moves through the grass a certain way). His dream? To live independently in a little house within biking distance of a battlefield and spend his days giving tours, sharing stories most people only read about in textbooks.
That dream is still out there waiting for him. In the meantime, he’s here with us, trading his flyer bag for a camera. Starting next month, Andrew is taking over a big chunk of our YouTube content. You’ll see him on job sites asking the techs questions most customers are too afraid to ask, explaining (in his calm, thoughtful way) why your water heater is making that weird noise, and probably sneaking in a random Civil War fact when we least expect it.
We can’t wait for you to meet him the way we have.
Andrew reminds us every day that different isn’t less. Sometimes it’s just… more. More depth, more determination, more heart than most of us know what to do with.
So next time you see one of our trucks rolling through your neighborhood, or you catch a new video popping up on the channel, know there’s a really good chance Andrew had something to do with it.
And if you happen to spot a guy on a bike, wearing noise-canceling headphones and a smile that could power half of Dayton, give him a wave.
That’s our Andrew.
And we’re darn proud he’s part of the family!