Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Vocside Stories: A Star at Big Y

Ed walks into Big Y, finds Lynn, his favorite cashier and begins helping customers with their groceries.  Ed's goal is to be an independent worker at Big Y.  He checks in with the Front End Manager to see when she needs him to assist in the bottle room and to be added to a time slot to shag carts in the parking lot.  When it is his turn to shag carriages, he dons the yellow safety jacket and heads to the parking lot.  Moving several carts together is tough work but Ed puts safety first.  His job doesn't stop there.  Ed also helps customers put groceries into their cars.  In a half hour, Ed has helped up to ten customers.  Then it is back to more bagging to finish off his day.  Ed likes the pace of the job.  It keeps him going and the time passes quickly.  More than that, Ed feels appreciated and enjoys assisting customers and "helping them get home as soon as they can".

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Vocside Stories: Gunnar's Flowers


He started arranging and delivering flowers about 2 months ago.  At first we did the whole job together.  Now, Gunnar counts out the number of flower buckets needed and begins filling them.  Once Gunnar picks a flower color to use, he likes to stick with it for a while.  He learned to put a few of the same color in all of the buckets instead of in one bucket.  He likes to put his tag with his name and the white peonies into the completed arrangements, proud of what he has created.  Right from the start, Gunnar was a pro at using the elevator and getting a full flower cart through entry doorways.  That's hard to do!  Just ask Gunnar, who holds the door with one hand and pushes the cart with the other.  Gunnar is a popular student around the school.  He is stopped by staff many times to chat about his day and his beautiful bouquets.  If, by some chance, someone on Gunnar's delivery list is not in their office to receive their flowers, Gunnar wants to keep delivering until all the flowers are gone.  He likes to see an empty cart on his trek back to the vocational building.  Great job learning the flower job Gunnar!