Marching, shuffling, rolling, tip-toeing and bouncing...

Picture this:  some thirty students, handsomely dressed, gigantic smiles plastered on many faces, fists pumping jubilantly in the air, some serious, intent on following the precise plan they practiced throughout the day.

Marching, shuffling, rolling, tip-toeing, bouncing, some needing guided assistance to their assigned seats while Rascal Flats My Wish  played in the background. 

James with his family

It's graduation day!!!  Everyone of these special kids has a Developmental Disability but yesterday I was privileged to witness a celebration of their great accomplishments.  If you had been there, perhaps tears would have rolled down your face as they did mine... how can one be unmoved by the sheer joy and pride on the faces of these young adults?

Yesterday was a special day for our very own James B!  James graduated from APS Transitions' CTAP program, a Career Transition Assistance Plan available through our public schools in Albuquerque. James was a featured speaker and did a marvelous job.  Members of the Stride, Inc. team were there to cheer him on and were gratified to hear him proclaim that his goal of finding employment has been reached.

Stride would like to thank our customers who make the hiring of James and all of our team members possible.  OfficeMax, Office Depot, Staples, School Specialty, WB Mason, United Stationers and SP Richards Company - your support of our products helps keep our Mission alive!

The CEO Becomes the Worker - Appreciating our Developmentally Disabled Co-Workers

Interesting day today @ Stride, Inc. As I mentioned yesterday, we got a big shipment of pens from our friends at Schneider of Germany. Now, keep in mind, the head of our Shipping and Receiving Department came to us some 25 years ago as a developmentally disabled adult. His disability was a communication disorder, basically he didn't speak.  Nada, zip.  Communication is no longer a problem "huge" for this valued employee and we call him the head of shipping, but truth be told, he is the Shipping and Receiving Department.

With our big shipment help was acquired from the assembly tables, so our work crew lost our Production Assistant (incidentally another DD employ who is now a full-fledged staff member). So, when I came in today, our work crew was sitting around with nothing to do! Nothing is tougher on a boss or on the workers. Our special needs employees love to work but one has to find them work.

I spent a good part of my day getting the crew working and keeping them working. No sooner did I get them on a task then they would come to my office stating they were done and needed more work. Around three o'clock in the afternoon as I was creatively creating yet another project I warned them that I was out of ideas and if they needed something else before the end of the day we'd all go out front and pull weeds together!

So much for my plans for the day. Let me tell you, it's humbling when the boss has to do the job of a person with documented developmental disability and has trouble keeping up.

That is what I find is truly rewarding about working for Stride, Inc. We have people here the world views as "retarded." What I find is we have employees with special job skills and abilities that far exceed mine.