Business Spotlight: Power of Words

Interpreting, for some, is more than communicating a foreign language.

The meaning of the words carries weight – it could be translating one’s legal rights or something much more intimate.

“It’s not just interpreting. You get to know someone,” says Will Crites, owner of Everything Espanol, a 6-year-old Spanish interpreting, instruction and translating service.

The bulk of Crites’ interpreting work is through the Missouri Department of Mental Health to reinstate the driver’s licenses of those with alcohol- or drug-related traffic offenses. In the state’s Substance Abuse Traffic Offender Program, Crites walks through the education components with his Spanish-speaking clients.

“In a counseling situation, I spend 50 hours with one guy. I’m hiseyes and ears and mouth for two months,” he says. “You get to see someone grow and take steps toward change.”

Crites works with Safety Council of the Ozarks and the Clark Community Mental Health Center in Monett – agencies certified by the state to administer the driver reinstatement program. Other interpreting jobs are at the municipal and county courts, where his resume is on file for Spanish-speaking needs.

At the Safety Council, DWI offenders are required to complete a three-day weekend intervention program. When Spanish interpreting is needed – usually one to three times a year – Crites is with the clients every step of the way to complete the required 20 hours of education with a substance abuse counselor.

“He adds a personal touch,” says Cheryl West, Safety Council’s director of traffic referral services, noting classes can have up to 20 or more individuals. “Just because there is a language barrier doesn’t mean they don’t get the same experience as everyone else in the program. A lot of times, he develops a closer relationship with the clients. He helps them work through the program.”

Crites says he’s interpreted in at least 100 sessions over the years and averages about 10 clients a year.

Supreme calling
Crites’ interpreting gig got started in Wyoming’s Supreme Court, of all places.

He had earned bachelor’s degrees in Spanish and education and combined the tracks for a master’s in bilingual education from the University of Northern Colorado.

“Out of the blue, my favorite professor in college called and said, ‘There is this big murder trial, and you were the first person I thought of.’ That was my first job interpreting,” Crites says.

After working in higher education at his alma mater in Colorado, as well as the University of Indiana and Beloit College in Wisconsin, Crites got a job at Missouri State University as an orientation coordinator and foreign student adviser.

He took freelance interpreting jobs here and there – in public health or a state tourism agency – before establishing Everything Espanol under Crites Enterprises LLC.

Describing the venture as a small niche, he says the translating jobs earned about $25,000 last year. Crites’ bread and butter is his 5-year-old Clean Cut Lawn Care business. With 75 to 80 weekly customers, including five commercial properties for Sperry Van Ness/Rankin Co., he says the lawn work produces about $125,000 a year.

“Lawn care is predictable for a nine-month season, but that means nine months of pay,” Crites says, noting he’s added an optional level bill pay system to spread out annual income.

He budgets in the sporadic interpreting work, which is normally evening and weekend time.

“That allows me to do lawn care from 7 a.m. to 2 or 3 p.m. and do the one-hour commute [to Monett] and work a few hours there. Then, I come home, and it’s a nice 14-hour day,” he says.

Meaningful words
While Springfield’s Hispanic population grew by 4 percent the last census, there are now nearly 9,000 Hispanics living in the city and around 40,000 in southwest Missouri.

Of the 23,000 people annually going through the Safety Council’s SATOP, West says only a small fraction need interpreting services. Crites is the council’s interpreter of choice and has been called in for one job this year.

Reimbursed by the state, West says the Safety Council pays $60 per hour for Everything Espanol’s interpretive services. “That’s a really good rate because a lot of interpreters charge more for weekend and evening services,” West says. “Some interpretive companies require that two people be there over a certain number of hours.”

Crites says the reinstatement system is nearly foolproof, but “doesn’t work every time.”
The outcome largely depends on the individual.

“In that counseling situation, you’ve got to let your guard down. I’m the one who gets to open that door,” Crites says, noting some of the education is spent watching reflective films. “Do you know how many times I’ve seen ‘When a Man Loves a Woman’ or ‘Flight’? We watch them at the Safety Council and the Clark Center.”

Crites says his most memorable job came as an on-call interpreter for CoxHealth. He already was in the hospitable visiting a friend in another wing when his phone rang.

“This baby had just been born and was only going to live for an hour. I had to tell the parents, ‘It’s not your fault,’” Crites says, beginning to cry as he retells the story. “I was crying and they were crying and the nurse was crying. I’m standing there, telling this family, ‘It’s not your fault, but he’s not going to survive – hold him, kiss him, hug him.’ The weight of that – by that time, I was just blubbering.”

That’s the power of words, and for Crites, it’s another day as an entrepreneur.

“I’ll leave an experience like that,” he says, “and I’m back on my truck and mowing.”[[In-content Ad]]