Gary Wolfe (inset) in a scene from the Chevrolet commerical.

Chevy has a recurring television advertisement that features folks who racked up a lot of mileage on their Chevy trucks. They include Gary Wolfe, who the commercial identified as a social worker who had more than 200,000 miles on his blue Chevy Silverado.

“On the days we help someone move from the (homeless) shelter to permanent housing, those are the best days,” Wolfe says in the TV spot, which has been running since 2008.

We asked SocialWorkersSpeak.org readers to see if they could find the guy in the commercial. As usual SocialWorkersSpeak.org fans delivered! “Shawna” sent us an email saying Wolfe worked for the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless (ARCH)  in Texas.

So we contacted the folks at the center and a few weeks later Wolfe called us back to tell us how he landed the commercial gig.

Wolfe also told us that although the Chevy commercial identifies him as a social worker he is a case manager at the center, which serves 500 to 700 homeless people a day. The center also employs social workers, according to National Association of Social Workers Texas Chapter Director Vicki Hansen, LMSW-AP, ACSW.

This is how Wolfe got involved with Chevy. His wife went on a trip to Atlanta to visit a friend. That friend introduced her to another friend in advertising, who “friended” Wolfe’s wife on Facebook.

Later on this new friend sent Wolfe’s wife a message saying the company was looking for people who drove a Silverado truck for a commercial. Wolfe’s old truck fit the bill and soon he found himself in a commercial.

“It was real unusual — it happened really fast,” he said. “They weren’t looking for a social worker but anyone with an old Chevy Silverado.”

Wolfe, who grew up in Cleveland and served in the Air Force, said he still drives the truck but doesn’t use it for work as often as he once did. “Mostly I use it for fun stuff. I like to put a kayak on it every now and then and go fishing and camping.”

Clients at the shelter gave Wolfe a standing ovation for appearing on the commercial. Folks still walk up to him sometimes and ask, “Don’t I know you from somewhere,” not realizing at first they saw him on a Chevy commercial. And acquaintances Wolfe hasn’t seen in years will tell him they saw him on television.

Wolfe says he works with “a real steady crew” at the center. Their mission is to find homeless people with psychiatric conditions and assist them with getting mental care, health care and employment. In these economic times Wolfe admits their job has gotten busier.

“Most people are just a paycheck away from being out on the street,” he said. “We are seeing a lot more mothers and children than we’ve ever seen before. I have to admit that is disturbing.”

To learn more about how social workers help the homeless check out the resources available at the National Association of Social Workers’ Homelessness Web page section by clicking here. NASW’s “Help Starts Here” also features the “Family Safety Real Life Stories — From Homelessness to Independent Living.”  To read it click here.