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In Brief By Keith Mason
It’s Springtime here at Goodwill of Central Arizona and success is in the air! We have already helped hundreds of youth and adults get the training or assistance they need to enter the workforce or continue their education. And, we continue to open more retail stores to better meet our shopper & donor needs, and to raise more funds to support additional community programs. I hope you enjoy the March issue of the Goodwill E-Formant and the interesting articles about A Day in the Life of a Career Center Advisor, the Youth Participant of the Month and Goodwill's upcoming Green Jacket Invitational Golf Tournament, in which proceeds will support after school programs for e-cademie Charter High School students! Happy Spring! Green Jacket Invitational Golf Tournament
Leave your ego and etiquette in the bag and pull out all your frustrations and one-liners. It's Goodwill’s Green Jacket Invitational. Like to throw a royal fit after a duff? It can win you a prize. Heckling on the tee box? Count on it. Now, don’t get the wrong idea. Amidst all this fun and games you’ll still get in a great round at beautiful Trilogy at Vistancia. But along with your eighteen, you’ll never have a better opportunity to bust a gut and exorcise any golf demons, all while supporting an incredibly important cause: Goodwill of Central Arizona. So sign up now, assemble your foursome, and bring your “A” game and your most hideous slacks to the wackiest little golf tournament you ever saw.
Register Today! Goodwill Receives Grant from Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust
The Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust held its Presentation of Arizona Grants on March 17, 2005. Keith Mason, President and CEO, attended on behalf of Goodwill of Central Arizona to accept a grant in the amount of $52,000. The grant will provide continuing support for a second year to the Goodwill of Central Arizona’s Computer and Customer Service Training Program in Peoria, which teaches entry-level computer skills to approximately 180 individuals in the clerical, financial and customer service fields. Trustee Chairman Frank E. Russell welcomed 2005’s first round of grant recipients with the statement, “With today’s grants, the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust has awarded more than $100 Million in grants to charities in Arizona and Indiana since it began operations in 1998!” Goodwill thanks the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust for its continuing support of our mission to create hope, jobs and futures! Goodwill Hosts Spring Learning Event
Goodwill of Central Arizona was the host to the Goodwill Industries International 2005 Spring Learning Event, March 13 - 16, held at the Tempe Mission Palms. Worldwide Goodwill representatives attended the event to learn about strategies that have positively impacted Goodwill organizations around the world, and specifically Goodwill of Central Arizona. As the event host, Goodwill of Central Arizona was proud to show off its successful business model workforce programs and retail stores that have received attention from Goodwill Industries International. A discussion of Goodwill of Central Arizona was presented by President and CEO, Keith Mason and focused on “Growing a Goodwill, No Matter Where You Start”.
A Day in the Life of a Career Center Advisor By Michael Burchett
As I pull into the parking lot just before 8:00 a.m. I see a man already waiting for the Career Center to open. You have to appreciate his dedication. Unlocking the door I invite him in and ask what we can do for him. “I need a job” is his reply, a fairly standard one. “What would you like to do?” is my equally standard response to which I often hear, “I don’t care; I just need a job.” This gentleman’s statement is no different. I offer the man a free career assessment test available online to help guide him towards a career that is well matched with his personality. This test opens new possibilities of career choices, and informs him of what is needed for each career he is interested in. Within fifteen minutes there are two more guests. One is browsing the internet job sites for the most recent additions and checking her email. The other guest is new and needs resume assistance. “I just need to add my most recent job to my resume,” he states as he hands me a sheet of paper. I ask him if he has his resume saved somehow although I already know the answer; he does not. Rather than tell him that he will have to retype his resume to include the new information, which he does not want to hear, I sell him on the benefits of creating his resume anew – tailored to the job he is applying for. Within an hour of the center opening there are six more guests. The fax machine is cranking out resumes and cover letters to employers across the valley, the computers are displaying an array of web pages from online applications to email accounts to job search sites, and guests are networking with each other about job leads as they wait for their turn on the telephone. While they might not describe it as networking, I see it, and it makes me smile. The day goes on in this fashion with guests coming and going until the afternoon. At about 4:30 it begins to slow down. I have been away from my desk for nearly two hours helping people fine tune their resumes, guiding guests through arduous online applications, and teaching little tricks to job seekers like using Google to find the name of companies that just list job titles and fax numbers in the classified ads. Returning to my desk as the last visitor leaves, I awake my desktop from the screensaver and am surprised to see what I was working on hours ago. While it is exciting, I still appreciate the break from the questions as I sit back in my chair. Just as I begin to check my email for the first time in over an hour one of my coworkers comes into the Career Center to drop off some files. Seeing that the room is empty she says, “It must be nice in here on slow days like this.” I smile and think to myself... "just another day in the life of the Career Center Advisor ". Youth Participant of the Month By Regina Mitzel
With the responsibility of raising a 15-month-old daughter, Mercedes knew she needed to do something about her education for the future of both herself and her child. A friend and fellow teen parent who was working towards her GED told Mercedes about Goodwill’s Workforce Investment Act (WIA) youth program provided through a partnership with Child & Family Resources; Mercedes enrolled in the program December 2003. Once enrolled in the program, Mercedes began studying for her GED and enrolled in parenting and life skills classes while her daughter, Karla attended childcare through Child & Family Resources. Through her training, Mercedes has demonstrated the skills she has obtained by meeting all of her goals each month and earning incentives along the way. Mercedes completed work readiness skill training in February of this year, and is now focused on her career and college options. Her desire is to become a nursing assistant. Mercedes summed up her involvement with Goodwill’s WIA program: “If it wasn’t for this program, I wouldn’t be in school. I wouldn’t have returned to high school. It helps me a lot! It helps me A LOT with child care. Without assistance I wouldn't have anyone to watch my baby.” Congratulations to Mercedes on her achievements and receiving the highest number of participation hours for the month! e-cademie Eagles Celebrate Win
The e-cademie Eagles celebrated their first win against Heritage Charter School 53-35 on February 15, 2005. A proud Coach Dolan Leveen stated, “This win was so special to the team and to the cheerleaders. This team continues to improve with each game and has the Goodwill spirit of never giving up and continuing to work hard. I am extremely proud of our basketball team and our cheer squad. The cheerleaders have been extremely supportive in all of the games, and this win belongs to those girls as well. They have worked very hard, and have been awesome at all of the games.” Congratulations to the team and GO Eagles!
Goodwill Featured in East Valley Tribune An article in the East Valley Tribune on Monday, March 21, 2005, highlighted Goodwill of Central Arizona and its success over the past 12 years. The article titled “Not your grandma’s Goodwill store anymore” emphasized the major changes that Goodwill has undergone including a cleaner, modern image of stores and the expansion of locations from six stores in 1992 to 29 in 2004 and an estimated 2.5 million shoppers per year. These operational and sales changes have resulted in employment and training and educational services being provided to almost 9,000 individuals in 2004, an increase from the 184 individuals served in 1992. Read more of the Goodwill article by visiting the East Valley Tribune website.
The Remodeling of a Goodwill Store By Karin Johnson & Kim Ryder
Did you ever stop to wonder what goes into turning an ordinary building into a fresh, clean and modern Goodwill retail store? A lot of hard work and a staff skilled in the art of remodeling, according to Kim Ryder, Director of Facilities for Goodwill of Central Arizona. Kim knows talent when she sees it; take the most recent store remodel for instance… Mike “Bubbles” Beaman was hired on as a temporary worker in the facilities department for previous construction projects and due to his
demonstration of craftsmanship and skills was hired on full-time. Mike’s hard work paid off as he was chosen to supervise his first remodel and build out, the new Brown Street & Mesa Drive store. The construction process began with acquiring all the necessary permits. While reading and working from a set of architectural plans; any structural changes or remnants were demolished, removed, and cleaned up. After repairing walls and building any
additions, the painting commenced; a very colorful event in our newest Goodwill stores! Next came the floor tiling and finally the installation of retail displays. Not only did Mike oversee the staff and project from start to finish, he conducted all of the building inspections and acquired the certificate of occupancy and physically did hands on work! Come see for yourself why we commend Mike and the facilities staff for a job well done! Goodwill Store Grand Openings
Just in time for Spring, Goodwill of Central Arizona opened two new retail locations. On January 21st the store located in Mesa on the NW Corner of Brown Rd. & Mesa Dr. held its grand opening with giveaways and other fun activities. The newest store located in Tempe on Rural & Guadalupe held its grand opening on March 10th with an opportunity to win one of four shopping sprees to the first 100 persons through the door.
The clean, modern stores feature a large selection of quality resale merchandise for the entire family at bargain prices. As with all of our stores, these locations also accept tax-deductible donations of clothing, shoes, bedding items, house wares, electronics, toys and accessories. Remember that in addition to finding bargains, you help support our mission: to create hopes, jobs and futures for people with barriers to employment by providing job skills training and placement services. To find a map to one of these two new locations or another retail store nearest you go to www.goodwillaz.org and remember to get your money saving coupon!
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