Carriage rides lift spirits
It's always refreshing to meet a man who loves his job.
Dave Helmuth goes around the Southeast giving kids a taste of the rugged Old West. The Georgia rancher was at MUSC Children's Hospital on Sunday, taking patients, siblings and often parents around the horseshoe in a bright red Wells Fargo carriage pulled by four spirited American quarter horses.
"I've got the best job in the world," Helmuth said between rides. "Wherever I go, I get to see kids smile."
The carriage hauled young patients and their siblings from the hospital and the nearby Ronald McDonald House around the loop about once every seven minutes for almost two hours. A uniformed MUSC safety officer directed traffic on Ashley Avenue.
Two children were rolled up in wheelchairs. Dalton Taylor, a Goose Creek fourth-grader, climbed aboard with his head wrapped in bandages. He was smiling when he rejoined his mother, Kristina Taylor.
"We've got a lot of children who would love to come, but they've got too many things attached to be here," said Sonja Muckenfuss, the hospital's nursing director. "Some of these kids are here for so long. If you can just bring them a little bit of joy, a smile to their face, that's what it's all about."
About a half-dozen volunteers rounded up children and helped them get in and out of the carriage.
"The thing is, it's giving them a break," said Scott Carpenter, a restaurant-supply worker who regularly volunteers at the hospital. "That's the big thing. I get to see smiles."
Helmuth is a history buff and gets into his role as a carriage driver. He calls the original Wells Fargo carriages the Greyhound buses of their time. The horses trotted along about 12 mph and were changed out about every three hours, he said.
Helmuth owns one of 14 ranches around the country that supply horses and drivers for Wells Fargo's 21 Concord passenger coaches. Their job is to keep the imagery of the old stage-coach company alive for the modern-day financial services company, and make some kids smile in the process.
He transports the carriage and horses in a big red semi with yellow Wells Fargo lettering on the sides. The trailer is 80 feet long and has stalls that are heated and air-conditioned.
The truck was parked behind the children's hospital Sunday and off Concord Street near the aquarium Saturday. The coach, without the horses, was outside Charleston Place for a Roper Foundation donor gala that Wells Fargo sponsored, said company spokeswoman Dana Obrist of Charlotte. A lot of guests stopped by the carriage to pose for pictures, she said.
Wells Fargo provides financial services for the Medical University of South Carolina, so it was a natural stop for the carriage show, said John Bonifacio, a company vice president who came down from Charlotte for the events.
Reach Dave Munday at 937-5553.
