[nfbmi-talk] Midwest Enterprises for the Blind dedicates newbuilding

joe harcz Comcast joeharcz at comcast.net
Sun Mar 25 01:04:43 UTC 2012


It is all disgusting and all a diversion.

This is the one and only National Industry for the Blind shop in Michigan. 
While it perportedley pays at least minimum wage to all of its employees the 
other sixty plus NISH shops do not. Moreover, the big ones like Peckham and 
New Horizons have built in conflicts of interests with over lappling board 
members; also get no bid contracts for job shadowing and job assessements 
from MRS and MCB and still have sub-minimum wage for PWD.

Oh yes and notice that when the idiots at LARA calculated FOIA for yours 
trully they certainly didn't calculated it at sub-minimunum wage, but rather 
at the highest rate for state bureucrats that would make any sane person 
puke his or her lunch!

Oh there is no minimum wage waiver for these obsenities eh?

Now is the time for multiple civil rights lawsuits. Pure and simple.

By the way we had an entire work oover of the Kalamazo MCB Training Center 
with no raised character and Braille signage in accordence with the ADAAG 
and DOJ guidelines for new construction and alterations.

The violations are acute and most profound.

I am working on the suits in law and equity and for damages.

Anyone want to be involved?

Enough is enough!

There is absolutely no freaking excuse whatsoever for the violations by the 
State of Michigan, DTMB and those in power in these regards. None. NADA. 
None!

$3.5 million triggers new construction and alteration guidlines of the ADA.

I will not tolerate the state doing this and nor sould anyone else.

It is an outragious slap in the face of all blind folks that even this new 
facility isn't ADA compliant by a long shot and the state should and will be 
sued.

If peo[ple wish for damages contact me.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mary Ann Robinson" <brightsmile1953 at comcast.net>
To: "NFB of Michigan List" <nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, March 24, 2012 6:50 PM
Subject: [nfbmi-talk] Midwest Enterprises for the Blind dedicates 
newbuilding


> 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
> By
> Sean McHugh | Kalamazoo Gazette
> Share
> Email
> Print
> 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.
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