The University of Idaho Argonaut

Last Monday, the walls and floors of the Wallace Complex were covered with shaving cream. The dormitory had previously received a package of the travel-sized bottles and residents had been given open access to it. Cassandra Yardley and the four other custodians in her crew spent two hours cleaning up the mess inside — the trail of shaving cream extending from Wallace to the Theophilus Tower was left alone.

Yardley moved to Moscow in February 2007, and began work as a custodian that May. As a team clean specialist, she is one of five employees in her crew. Yardley said the group is in charge of the upkeep of the top floor of Wallace, the highest five floors of the Tower, buildings four and five of the Living Learning Community complex and Ballard wing, which is inside Wallace. Yardley said the crew rotates through a set list of tasks, and each person does a different chore every week.

“I’ll take a bunch like her,” said Linda McConnell, custodial supervisor in Yardley’s team.
According to McConnell, Yardley is very outgoing and always happy. McConnell said she is fun to be around, and everyone in the crew likes her. Yardley is a hard worker, said McConnell, and she is persistent in learning new things.
“Doesn’t matter what we train her in; she always catches on quickly,” she said.
Yardley said she loves the people in her crew. They like to joke and play with each other, said Yardley, and the others call her “the kid” because she is the youngest among them.

About a month ago, Yardley said, she was attempting to shut the cover on a raised shelf in one of the rooms in Wallace; the cover finally came down and hit her on the head as it fell, she said, and the others laughed and teased her about it.
When Yardley married her husband Trevor last year, said McConnell, the crew made her a cake and had it ready for her at work the next day. Charmian Caren, a friend of Yardley’s, said she is really happy about the wedding. Caren said she met Yardley last summer, before Yardley had joined her current team, and partnered with her for cleaning duties. They became friends, said Caren, and now they call each other “buddy.”

Yardley said her husband is in school, that and she plans to attend in the future. She’s thinking about a major in early childhood development, and she said she wants to eventually open her own daycare.
“I love kids,” Yardley said.
According to Yardley, her mother operated a daycare for about six years, ending it when Yardley was around twelve. Yardley began babysitting a few years later, she said, and continued for two or three years. When she was 17, she taught three and four-year-olds in Vacation Bible School, teaching again the next year; Yardley said it made her happy to watch and to help them learn and succeed.

She said she understands from her mother’s experiences the difficulties of tending a daycare, but she considers the children’s “smiling faces” at the close of the day reward enough.
“There are days when you have your moments, but in the end, to me, it’s worth it.”
As Yardley pursues what life has in store, it’s clear that her friends, supervisors and co-workers will continue to enjoy and appreciate her.
“She’s a neat lady,” Caren said.