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Purchase Your Greeting Cards from Achieve!
Achieve participants have been busy making greeting
cards that are available for purchase. There are several designs to choose from
and the designs are copies of artwork created by Achieve Services Participants
and then printed on recycled file folders (we've gone green).
Cards can be viewed and purchased in the front office of Achieve Services, Inc.
for $1.00 each.
All proceeds go back to the participants and the card making business.
 View
photos from our May 2009 fundraiser!!
Mike Baker, Jeremy Welke, and Gene Gerdesmeier of UPS present Rick Bro with a
donation check to Achieve Services. Achieve Services was awarded the grant to
improve it's sensory room for participant use with the purchase of new
equipment. Thank you UPS!!
Achieve Services, Inc. is awarded a grant from Sam's Club
and their parent company, Wal-Mart.
Did
you know you can now make donations
online? By teaming up with Blacktie Minnesota you can now make donations
by following the link to
Blacktie Minnesota.
They assist non-profit agencies with
fundraising and ongoing marketing. You can make a secure online donation
to Achieve Services Inc. using this exciting new service!
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Couple Share Their Devotion to
Caring Vocation
MARIA ELENA BACA, Star Tribune
The full Article, with any associated
images and links can be viewed
here.
Corey and Kelly Maggiolo may have
more appreciation than most married couples for each other's "how was your day?"
stories.
The Maggiolos both work at Achieve Services Inc., a Blaine nonprofit that offers
work experience, training and support for more than 150 folks with developmental
and physical disabilities.
"When we tell each other a story, we really get it," said Kelly, because their
stories share the same characters.
Kelly and Corey met and courted at Achieve. Both say they love their work; their
emotional and practical dedication is apparent.
As Kelly walks around Achieve's offices, in the Anoka County Human Service
Center, she's the recipient of hugs, handshakes and inquiries about their son,
who had been sick. Corey knows which clients like a fist-bump; he hits the
timing of their perennial jokes and inquires after favorite T-shirts.
Achieve has been a private nonprofit since 2004. It receives county, state and
federal funding for each client's training and support.
Kelly's been at Achieve 11 years; Corey's been there six years. The agency
employs 52 people, including the training specialists and assistants who work
with the agency's 153 clients. Of those clients, 74 work out in the community,
in the mail rooms upstairs in Human Services, at Medtronic and the Anoka County
Government Center, at McDonald's, at a Holiday Station.
They're paid based upon how quickly they work compared with an average worker.
The piecework, they do on site. On a recent day, they were assembling switches
for New Hope-based E-Switch; they're paid per piece.
On this day, the last before a five-day holiday break, clients buzzed about a
noontime party. Some were off decorating gingerbread men and sugar cutouts.
Kelly helps clients get settled into their jobs, and makes sure that they have
the tools and support they need.
In Corey's red room, which he's accented with painted white and blue stars,
clients have goals to meet each day, ranging from simply deciding what to do
next, to delivering mail and collecting recycling around the Human Service
Center, or completing the task of washing and folding laundry for the on-site
Learn and Grow Child Care Center.
Achieve program director Carol Donahoe said the work program gives clients a
chance to have meaningful work.
"It makes them feel like part of society," she said. "It makes them feel like
everybody else."
The Maggiolos have taken their vocation beyond the confines of the agency's
24,000-square-foot office, striking up friendships with clients and their
families, and occasionally taking special friends home with them. Corey's eyes
light up when he describes the brotherly bond between his 8-year-old son Brandon
and Dave Mohler, with whom Corey has worked as a personal care attendant.
Mohler splits his days between Corey's room and with Kelly in the work room.
Since Mohler moved into a group home recently, the Maggiolos have been visiting
him more at his new place.
Mohler, 31, has Down syndrome. His mother Mary's voice breaks with emotion when
she describes the blessings she's found in the Maggiolos.
"Life is hard, and when you're handicapped, it's much harder," she said. "Dave's
always wanted a friend to go over to their house, and that's what Corey and
Kelly were for him. ... I don't know what we would do without them."
Maria Elena Baca • 612-673-4409
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Achieve Participant Opens Doors -- For
Himself and Others
 We’ve all seen (and probably used) the
large round metal buttons that electronically open doors to provide
accessibility for people using wheelchairs. You press the button. The door
opens. You go through. Pretty simple, right? Gary Houdek, an Achieve
participant, found out that it’s not always that easy. Things like location of
the button and speed of the door opening and closing can make use easier, or
more difficult. In Houdek’s case, things were more difficult. At the Human
Service Center in Blaine, a double set of powered doors separates the outside
from the inside. Houdek noted that the second automatic door tended to close too
quickly, making it difficult for wheelchair users to navigate. Houdek
communicated his issue with Achieve behavior analyst, Ralph Vossberg, who also
took a look at the situation. “I observed a woman caught by a closing,” Vossberg
noted. “She had a difficult time getting her wheelchair untangled so she could
enter. Even though there was a provision for accessibility it wasn’t really
adequate.” Houdek demonstrated using the doors while Vossberg watched and they
noted that the internal button for the second door was positioned in an awkward
location, making it difficult for wheelchair users to push and then navigate
through the door.
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Achieve Participant Starts Disc Repair
Business
There is nothing new about going into business
for yourself. Likewise, the idea of people with disabilities having careers and
working at real jobs is concept that most people are familiar with. Combine the
two, however, and you do have something cutting edge.
Meet Kevin Carlson, an Achieve participant,
entrepreneur and cutting edge type of guy.
Carlson recently opened his own business,
called KC’s Disc Repair. He is able to repair CD’s, DVD’s and game system discs
that are scratched or damaged.
Carlson operates a machine called a
Disc-Go-Pod, which uses a special cleaning solution as well as rotation to
resurface the shiny part of discs. Carlson can repair discs with light damage,
such as small hairline scratches to heavy damage that runs deep from something
like a knife or screwdriver.
The machine uses a special cleaning solution along with the rotation of the disc
to resurface the shiny part of the discs, allowing them to work like new.
“There are actually four layers to discs,”
explained Jim Rooker, program manager and member of the CEO group. “The
digitalized information is on the layer closest to the top, allowing the
Disc-Go-Pod to polish the damaged bottom layer to remove scratches and return
the disc to working condition.”
If you have scratched discs (and who doesn’t)
you may want to get a spot in Carlson’s repair schedule. Once word gets out that
this entrepreneur is on the job, spots are sure to fill up fast. Carlson charges
just $3.00 for each disc repaired. For more information, or to schedule disc
repairs, contact Jim Rooker at Achieve: 763-783-4909.
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