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| Ricki Carroll (The Cheese Queen) |
We owe a great deal of our success as a business to the help of a VA program called the Compensated Work Therapy Workshop. All around the country, this program provides jobs for veterans and help for businesses like ours.
In 2010, we had a rapid growth spurt in our business. This was great, but we didn’t know how long it would last and we didn’t have enough staff to keep up with the orders. We heard about this program and began our partnership with veterans at the V.A. Healthcare Center in Leeds, Massachusetts.
The veterans were able to help us through our crisis and it worked out so well that we decided to continue having them assemble our kits. Gradually, through the years, we added to their responsibilities and now they are a very important part of our business.
There are about 15 veterans on our team and we invited them all to our shop the day after Veteran’s Day. We had a great time – eating pizza and playing bingo. We’ll be hosting them again during the holiday season in December. Here are a few pictures:
Our “dream team” of veterans
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| Bruce, wearing his crown for assembling the most of our kits |
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| Bill |
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| Ed |
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| Garry |
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| James |
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| Keith |
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| Victor and Keith |
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| Lynn at the table |
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| Victor and Ricki (the Cheese Queen) |
Staff members from the VA who work with our team
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| Beth |
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| Kristine |
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| Jim |
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| Hilary |
Our staff
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| Jenny |
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| Sarah |
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| Angie and April |
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| April was our fabulous caller for bingo |
Where was Kathy?
Kathy was there, but she managed to elude the camera this year. So here’s a picture (from a 2012 article) of Kathy and Sarah getting ready for our holiday visit to the veterans at their shop in Leeds (click here):
