“We are seeing a reduction in risk factors and improved health among the Ingram
Barge associates,” Roberts says.
She cites statistics from the program documenting that response:
• 40 percent have improved their exercise tolerance as measured by treadmill time
• 23 percent have reduced their blood pressure
• 35 percent have reduced their cholesterol levels
• 20 percent have reduced their fasting blood sugar
• 10 percent have quit smoking
“Our priorities are safety, prevention and reducing risk factors so they can get
out there, be healthy, and be safe,” she says.
And sometime Roberts gets “out there” as well. So on this day, she is aboard the Francis B. Keegan along with Dayani
staffers Regina Trainor, coordinator of corporate wellness, and Karabulut, who
is director of Dayani’s exercise testing lab. Joining them are Dave Brown, vice president for human
resources and safety at Ingram Barge, as well as a Vanderbilt News and Public
Affairs writer and photographer.
Half of their lives on the river
If Burkhart, 38, is fazed at all these extra people in his wheelhouse, he doesn’t look it. The view from up here is commanding and perspective-changing. As he
takes the Keegan downriver, the murky green water unfurls its way toward the
Nashville skyline, but from an angle unfamiliar to non-river travelers. The
traffic on the Interstate 24 bridge passes overhead, most of the drivers
unaware of the traffic below on the original “highway” into Nashville, the Cumberland.
The material on the Ingram barges are most commonly sand, which is dredged from
the river further downstream and primarily used in construction projects, and
coal, which is mined in the Western United States and shipped by river for use
in TVA power plants. On this morning, Burkhart is taking the Keegan to pick up an empty barge and
move it to a sand yard where it can be filled for later transport.
Burkhart is a genial man with a vague resemblance to a young version of the New
Orleans musician Dr. John, if Dr. John had a large, two-pointed goatee and a
spectacular array of tattoos—including a skull on his left elbow, a spider web on his right elbow,
bright-inked flames licking up both arms, and his last name spelled out in
large block letters on his left arm, which has more ink than the average copy
of the Tennessean.
In other words, picture every boat captain you’ve ever seen on TV or in movies—well, Burkhart doesn’t look like that.
But somehow he still looks like he was born to be a riverboat captain.
In a way, he was. He has been on the river for 20 years, starting out as a deck
hand and working his way up. His father is a retired Ingram Barge captain, and
his brother and cousin also work on the river. In fact, Burkhart’s cousin Greg works with him as the pilot of the Keegan. Since captains and
pilots alternate shifts in the wheelhouse, any time, day or night, there is a
Burkhart at the controls.
That “day or night” thing is a key to understanding the health needs of a river crew, and a key
reason why the Dayani Center was hired by Ingram Barge. The Keegan, which is
typical of the 140 boats that Ingram runs on virtually every navigable river in
the United States, has a nine-person crew that works for three weeks at a time,
then has three weeks off. The captain and pilot work alternating six-hour
watches for the three weeks the crew is aboard.
On the Keegan, Mark gets up at 4:30 a.m. and takes the wheel at 5:30 a.m. for
his first watch, which ends at 11:30 a.m. when he hands the controls over to
his cousin Greg. After Greg’s six hours, at 5:30 p.m., Mark is back in control. Greg returns at 11:30 p.m.
to ply the river through the wee hours until Mark is back the next morning at
5:30, when the cycle begins again. “They never sleep more than five hours at a time,” Roberts notes.
