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St. Joseph Workshop Helps Employees Qualify for Special Olympics
Special Olympians at Specialty Industries in St. Joseph show off their medals from this spring. The celebration was possible in part because the workshop helped ensure all potential athletes were able to obtain their required physicals.
Byron Myers, President/CEO said staff members noticed that several employees expressed an interest in participating in Special Olympics. But when it came time for the events, they were not part of it.
“What we found was, it was often difficult for our employees or their families to navigate getting a physical scheduled and completed,” Myers said. “We thought an easy solution was to bring in someone to perform physicals here at the workplace.”
Specialty Industries partnered with the local Special Olympics office, and they were able to get health providers to donate their time to perform the physicals. Jay Martin, Specialty Industries’ employee relations manager, worked with families, guardians, and caregivers to get the necessary paperwork completed. And while the shop originally had employees in mind, they allowed anyone who was interested in being a Special Olympics athlete to participate in this program.
Many of our employees get a great sense of pride from their Special Olympics accomplishments and the shop wanted to help ensure their participation was possible.