[nfbmi-talk] Midwest Enterprises for the Blind dedicates new building

[Mary Ann Robinson]

Midwest Enterprises for the Blind dedicates new building
Published: Thursday, September 03, 2009, 2:30 PM     Updated: Thursday, September
03, 2009, 3:47 PM
Sean McHugh | Kalamazoo Gazette
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Sean McHugh | Kalamazoo Gazette
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John A. Lacko | Special to the Kalamazoo Gazette
Midwest Enterprises for the Blind employee Mark Sullivan explains the assembly of
a three ring notebooks during the open house for the Midwest Enterprises for the
Blind Open House and Dedication Wednesday afternoon at their new facility on the
corner of Lake Street and the I-94 Business Loop.
KALAMAZOO -- Linda Merrill was 38 when she got her very first paying job.
She was born three months premature, and the days she spent in an incubator filled
with oxygen proved to be too much for her already underdeveloped eyes. She could
see only tiny amounts of light for the first seven years of her life.
John A. Lacko | Special to the Kalamazoo Gazette
 Midwest Enterprises for the Blind's Gary Thompson explains how he assembles calculators
to U. S. Representative Fred Upton during their open house and dedication of their
new facilites at the corner of Lake Street and Business Loop I-94.
When she was 7, both eyes had to be removed, leaving Merrill completely blind. She
lived her adult life in subsidized housing, getting by on income from Social Security
and disability.
"Volunteerism is beautiful, but it doesn't pay the bills," said Merrill, of Parchment.
Then came the phone call in 1997 from Goodwill Industries saying that they'd found
a job that was perfect for her -- assembly work at Midwest Enterprises for the Blind.
"I was thrilled," said Merrill, now 50. "I couldn't even sleep the night before I
started, knowing that I was finally going to have a job that I got paid for."
Merrill, except for a brief hiatus, has worked at MWEB ever since. Since 1997, she
has learned to work with so many of the products that MWEB produces, many under government
contracts, that she was named employee of the year in 2005.
MWEB is a nonprofit, light-manufacturing company that provides legally blind people
with opportunity for employment in positions including assembly, warehousing and
packaging. Incorporated in 1993, it began operating in a small warehouse on South
Street with a handful of employees and in 2003 began operating out of a leased building
on Covington Road in Kalamazoo.
On Wednesday, Merrill was one of several employees on hand doing demonstrations for
the public as MWEB's own newly renovated building, at 2207 Lake St., was dedicated
with an open house and ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Kalamazoo Mayor Bobby Hopewell and U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, along with MWEB board members
and friends and families of workers, attended the event.
While Merrill showed people the five-step process she uses to assemble pens, her
co-worker Gary Thompson demonstrated how he operates a press that stamps logos on
small calculators.
Thompson, 60, of Kalamazoo, developed scarlet fever as an infant, and it destroyed
his vision.
Melony Demo, right, shares a production secret with Linda Merrill, both of the Midwest
Enterprises for the Blind, during their Wednesday Open House and Dedication.
Today, Thompson, who has been with MWEB for 11 years, works with vision of 20/300.
"If a person with normal vision can see something clearly standing 300 feet away,
I have to be 20 feet away from it to see like they do," he said.
President Karen Walls said that of the 35 people working at MWEB, 25 are legally
blind and 10 are sighted.
Walls was thrilled to be able to move into the 39,000-square-foot building -- which
is about 12,000 square feet larger than its previous space -- with hopes of adding
more jobs for people like Tyke Patek, 32, of Kalamazoo, the MWEB 2008 employee of
the year, who cut the ceremonial ribbon on Wednesday flanked by board members and
officials.
"This is a great place to work," Patek said. "It's a very laid-back environment,
and we all have great relations with our employers and co-workers."
Merrrill, from her pen-assembling table, said that the part-time job allows her a
much better lifestyle than she had before she could work, calling it a blessing.
"I wouldn't wish blindness on anyone," she said. "But if you are blind, this is a
wonderful place for opportunity. This job means so much to me."
For more information on MWEB, call (269) 383-0713.