Brown haired, bearded man in orange t-shirt in front of a blue background.“I was shocked! Like…wow!” Bradley Gaskin said when I asked him what his reaction was when he found out that he was the Employee of the Month for July. Brad will have been with IA Stage for two years this October. He’s a steady, solid guy who is friendly and easy to talk to.

A Deltona, FL native, Brad initially studied to be a firefighter after high school. He grew up in a military family, though – his father was in the Army, his grandpa served in the Air Force Special Forces, his great grandpa also served in the Air Force – and so he enlisted in the Air Force, as well. (His little brother, by the way, recently retired from serving as a K9 cop…wait for it… in the Air Force.) Basic training was at Lackland AFB in Texas, and then he was stationed in Goldsboro, NC, at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base where he served as an air crew flight equipment inspector.

After his military service, Bradley attended auto body school. He said, “Painting cars was my thing,” and he was able to do just that at Drive Time. He also had a side gig painting cars out of a friend’s garage.

HiA young girl in a pink dress lying on her stomach on the back of a white unicorn.s wife, Mariela, is a 4thnd grade teacher at Ivy Hawn Charter School. They met when in high school and although they were not high school sweethearts, they married in 2009 and now have two beautiful daughters, Lily, 6, and Emilia Rose, one and a half. “We wanted to name them after flowers,” Brad explained, as he showed me two gorgeous pictures of his girls. He visibly lights up when he talks about them. “Lily was really into dinosaurs – like, she knows the scientific names. She’s six and wasn’t freaked out by Jurassic Park movies! Now she’s into fairies.” Little sister Emilia, he says, is into whatever Lily is into. “She’s still learning what she likes.” Just look at those beautiful babies!

Somewhere along the way, he met Alex Martinez, one of our welders here at IA Stage. Alex worked with Brad’s wife at Kohl’s before he joined IA Stage. Alex introduced Brad to the company, and here we are. Bradley started out in the paint shop, but is currently working in the metal shop.

When he’s not at work, Brad says he’s a homebody. He still likes to work on cars; he likes to fish. “I stay at home and fiddle,” he said, smiling. He does admit that he and the family are into Disney things for the sake of the girls. (He knows Merida, Ariel, and Moana by name.) There are two family dogs – Mariela’s Lab mix, Potter, and Bradley’s German Shepherd, Bjorn Ironside. That name is another little glimpse of what interests this homebody – Vikings! Seems like a good balance when you’re surrounded by fairies and princesses, right, Brad?

A bearded man, a dark haired woman, and their two girls standing behind a birthday cake.