Chatting with Rotarian Dr. Bill Ellis (left) are Kathy L. McKinley (Director of Community Relations) and Tim Morris (VP Operations for Goodwill).

"Goodwill believes in the power of work," Tim Morris told Putnam Rotarians today. Morris since last March has been vice president of operations for Goodwill Industries of Kanawha Valley with nine retail stores from Beckley to Vienna.

"If you are in Rotary, more than likely, you work: You have a job, you get up, you get aggravated, you are frustrated. (A friend of mine says he has a great business -- except for the employees and the customers.)

"The mission of Goodwill Industries is to assist people with disabilities, or those who are otherwise vocationally disadvantaged to achieve full participation and integration into society.

"And even on your worst day at work, you need to realize how thankful you are to have good workers to have to put up with.

"Among Americans with disabilities," said Morris, "there is a 75 percent unemployment rate.

"Most people think Goodwill's mission is to provide clothing to individuals who are poor. That's not the case. It's not just the leftover 'yard sale' stuff that we throw on the table and you take away.

"We pay the wages for approximately 315 employees.

"Out of that, 80 people work in our retail division. And we have 170 people that work in what we call 'contracts.'

"If you guys would stop by the rest area down here -- the Hurricane rest area -- you'll see a sign up there that says 'mowing,' on it. The people who clean that rest area are Goodwill employees.

"We provide jobs for those people. They cut the grass.

"They do janitorial work. They keep most of the capitol grounds. We're in negotiations right now to take over the one building that's left at the capitol -- as well as grounds keeping.

"We clean most state office buildings in Charleston.

"As least 75 percent of those under contracts are people with disabilities. Most of them would not be able to work were it not for the support that Goodwill has [given them].

"We have about twenty 'client workers' that are in usually on a short term basis for CPR training, or job skills, or life skills training.

". . . put up your street light"

Morris related several stories of the success of clients enabled and supported by Goodwill.

Retail stores are moving into the digital age, said Morris. "Check out shopgoodwill.com, where Goodwill stores all across the country put stuff on that you can bid on -- like E-Bay.

"We're starting a certified emergency assistant program up in Jackson County, working with some of the nursing homes.

"We signed a contract with Dell Computers a couple of months ago. They are paying us to collect [old] computers and monitors and peripherals. That's Dell's way of giving back to the community. And we hope that when we get it built up that we will be able to hire another person with disabilities to guide that program.

"Last.year," he continued, "we put over two million pounds in salvage. We believe in the power of work. We believe in making people's dreams come true.

"Every bag you drop off, every box you drop off, helps us do that.

"Right now we are bombarded with donations because of yard-sale season, and they're piling up. But as winter comes, it starts to slow down. So keep us in mind.

"What we're there for -- it's not for the stores, it's not to clean buildings, it's not for 'shopgoodwill' -- it's for the people that without us [would not be able to live on their own]."

Morris recently spent some time in Philadelphia, the city of Ben Franklin. "Franklin wanted street lights in Philadelphia," said Morris, "but they just blew him off. He could not win the argument in any way. So he put up one street light -- on his property -- and showed them what it did.

"And one by one, everybody else did the same. People put up their own street lights. Not the government. Nobody big. One by one other people followed his example, and they lit up the city of Philadelphia.

"That's what Goodwill is doing: We're lighting up the Kanawha Valley one street light at a time.

"Sure, we want your clothes. We want your donations. We want you to shop at our stores. But our mission is to help the people that you know need it.

"Put up your street light."