Goodwill & Girl Scouts: The Dynamic Duo

Goodwill Industries serving Northeast Ohio and Northwest Pennsylvania has consecutively teamed up with the Girl Scouts to do a “good turn” for the community for many years now, by donating gently used clothing and household items for the annual Good Turn Day drive. The goods collected from the Girl Scouts are processed and then sold at our Goodwill retail stores to fund Goodwill’s job training programs for people with disabilities or barriers to employment. The Good Turn Day collaborative service project has offered Girl Scouts the opportunity to make a positive impact in their community. It is a long-standing opportunity for Girl Scouts to assist Goodwill Industries in the fulfillment of our mission; “Building self-sufficiency through the power of work”, and by collecting and distributing donation bags throughout local communities.

 Goodwill is very pleased to partner with Girl Scouts to inspire and encourage from a young age. Many of the organizational values of the Girl Scouts and Goodwill are nicely aligned: a commitment to community and a dedication to helping others. The Girl Scouts have donated time in our stores organizing merchandise and have also donated items that have exemplified our Goodwill supporters, shoppers and donors; they see the value of giving unwanted items new life and helping to lift up others, all while building confidence in their own ability to change lives.

Good Turn Day 2016 resulted in 33 Girl Scout participants and over 100 donation bags!  Every Girl Scout that participated in Good Turn Day earned a Good Turn for Goodwill patch and a personal thank you letter from our CEO, Eric Schwarz, expressing our appreciation of how their donations help support Goodwill`s mission, and individuals in need, right in their own community.

Project YES! Official Kick-off in Corry, Pennsylvania

          Goodwill of NE Ohio and NW Pennsylvania has expanded its workforce development services to Erie County with Project YES, a Pre-Employment Transition Services (PETS) program offered in partnership with Pennsylvania’s Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR). This program is designed to promote independent living, self-advocacy, and workplace readiness skills to youth with disabilities and other barriers to employment. Project YES teaches these skills through classroom instruction, job shadowing, and work-based learning.

          Project YES is implemented under the leadership of Director of Mission Services Matthew McCray, and Workforce Development Program Manager, Hanni Nazario. Matthew brings to Project YES several years of experience in vocational assessment and job coaching, having spearheaded similar programming through Goodwill in Pittsburgh, PA. Hanni brings to the program her expertise in curriculum development and classroom instruction, having worked for many years in Erie area schools.

          Goodwill staff, including CEO Eric Schwarz and Workforce Development Director Sandi Allison, joined Matthew and Hanni in launching Project YES’s partnership with the Corry Area School District on November 3rd. This night marked the official kick off of services in Corry, with an open house for students and parents who will participate in the program. This is the first service of its kind being offered in the Corry Area School District, and has attracted the attention of the entire Corry community. The event was covered by local news outlets, including a front page story in the Corry newspaper and the lead story on that night’s Erie TV news. Many Corry parents expressed excitement and hope for the success of their students, who will now be able to enter the workforce armed with the skills needed for success.

          Goodwill plans to expand Project YES to several other schools in Erie County over the coming year. Both Matthew and Hanni look forward to this unprecedented opportunity to empower students to better their own communities though the power of work.

The Importance of Donations: Second Hand to Second Chances

          Think of the biggest companies you can.  Off the top of your head, you might name several fortune 500 companies.  Sometimes people think of “Goodwill” as a massive conglomerate the likes of Coca-Cola, Alcoa, and 3M.  When people think of Goodwill, they often think of it as a monolithic entity with a centralized office and satellite locations.  The reality could not be further removed from this perception. Goodwill is actually comprised of 164 member organizations that each operate independently. Each Goodwill operates under the Goodwill name, but is fully responsible for obtaining and securing funding in their respective local area of responsibility.  That funding is the lifeblood of what we do here.

          The mission of Goodwill has always been to provide services to the community utilizing the funding we receive.  This funding comes from a variety of sources such as grants, endowments, state and federal funds and most importantly, donations.  Donations are the main thing driving what we do here at Goodwill and they are the main reason we are able to provide services to the community.  In many ways, none of what we do is possible without you.  That old sweater that didn’t fit anymore?  That helped pay for a job training program that helped four individuals with Autism get job training and work readiness skills.  That couch you kept in your garage and hadn’t sat on for 10 years?  That helped pay for someone to fulfill their dream of getting their GED.  Those golf clubs you bought and used once because you totally swore you were going to play 18 holes every week with your buddies from college?  That helped pay for someone who had been out of work for two years to get the training they needed to re-enter the workforce.  Your donations help us provide services to those in need.

          It’s not just your donation of used goods that assists us in our mission. Goodwill also relies on private cash donations as well as monetary donations from various community organizations and donors in order to provide services to the community.  Even with all the proceeds from donation and public funding, there is a limit to what services can be provided.  These funds, when augmented with cash donations, give us the tools that we need to provide comprehensive services to the community.  It is Goodwill’s mission to provide a hand up to those in need in the community and without donations, none of it would be possible.  

From the Desk of the CEO: Meet the Board

          This month, I would like to dedicate this column to recognizing the faces behind the strength and stability of your local Goodwill by saying Thank You! to our Board of Trustees for their selfless service in 2016, a year that has proven to be one of improved performance on all fronts. Our Board assists in our professional guidance and visioning and ultimately has responsibility for the culture and stability of what Goodwill means to our community.

Kathryn Banks: A school psychologist with the Boardman Local Schools and Director of Music at Christ Church Presbyterian.

Jeffery Brodsky: Retired Orthopedic Surgeon

Mike Brown: Owner of Amerisearch Background Alliance

David Flautt: Financial Advisor at Edward Jones

Bernadette Hattjar: An Associate Professor of Occupational Therapy at Gannon University, tenured Associate Professor and a published author.

Bill Hyland: Owner of Outdoor Army Navy

Jeff Lampson: Owner of Gazette Newspapers and Accounting Department Director of Finance at Community Care Ambulance

Chris Oleski: Store Manager at OfficeMax

Craig Sernik: Director of a Council of Governments

David Spotts: Maritime Lawyer at David M. Spotts J.D.

Steve Vennare: Vice President of Commercial Banking at Andover Bank

Ron Wilkinson: Owner of Wilkinson Paving & Excavating, Inc.

A Story Full of Thanks: By Stacy Sackett

          My name is Stacy Sackett. I’m a mother of six children, foster mother of four children, and a grandmother of one. I’m also the new Lead Cashier/Supervisor of the Ashtabula, OH Goodwill store. I wanted to write a little something that I am very passionate about: homelessness.  Everyday, someone or some family is becoming homeless right here in our county. As a community, we need to do something to help this problem. I know of what I speak, having recently been there myself.

          On May 5, 2016, my family of 13 became homeless due to circumstances beyond our control.  We had five days to remove everything that we owned from our house. We had nowhere to go, and who wants to take in 13 people? NO ONE! Thankfully, we had a family member who owned 50 acres of land who gave us permission to live on his property in our tents. This is where we resided for three long, hot months. Living in the woods was not easy, but I was thankful that we had tents, canopies, a port-a-potty, and a grill. Not all homeless people have the luxuries that we had. I am grateful for all that we did have, right down to the well water that we found on the property, and the woods for giving us shade from the hot sun.  

           Even though I appreciated the little things, depression was settling in. I was homeless, jobless, and worried about my family with cold weather quickly approaching.  So, every day, I got up, took a sponge bath, and started placing my résumé everywhere I could. My biggest hope was Goodwill.  I really felt like I needed to work at Goodwill because it is a job that allows me to give back. After three long months of searching every day, I got the call from Goodwill, and we finally found a new house to rent.  I’m thankful to say that we are now out of the woods.

          As you are reading this, there are approximately fifty homeless people/families living in the gulf in Ashtabula. We, as a community, need to help. Donate to Goodwill where people can get affordable household items. Donate to food pantries. Donate blankets, flashlights, batteries, and whatever it takes to make life easier for these families.

          My advice for people in the same situation is to first of all: keep your head up. Don’t let depression get you down. Call upon resources to help you. Catholic Charities, Children’s Services, and food pantries located in Ashtabula, Jefferson and Conneaut are there to assist you. All of these places can help.

My Life in Overview: By Jenn Snow

          My name is Jenn and I am a recovering drug addict and alcoholic. At the young age of 13, I started sneaking beer from my parents when my friends would come over to stay the night. Drinking was my way of trying to “fit in” and feel accepted. Gradually, it kept getting worse. Over the years, it went from only drinking with friends to feel accepted, to now trying to cover up the emptiness inside of me that I needed filled. I loved the attention I was getting from everyone while I would be out drinking. My biggest fear had finally come true: I was an alcoholic like my mother. 

          Eventually, alcohol wasn’t enough to hide my pain and hurt anymore, so I turned to street drugs, which had completely taken over my life. I ended up losing everything, including all my children, and becoming homeless.  For many years, I struggled with my addiction and kept trying to hide from life, when all I was doing was letting it pass me by and missing out on my children growing up.  I couldn’t seem to figure out how to pull myself up out of the gutters until the beginning of this year, when I finally hit rock bottom and had enough.

          At that extreme low, I was four months pregnant with my now three-month-old daughter Payton. Homeless, sleeping outside in cars, and still using drugs in the middle of winter, I became sick and tired of being sick and tired. At this point, I knew it was time to make a change. I went to the Community Counseling Center and got a case manager; someone who would help me get on the right track and start moving my life forward in the right way.  She got me involved in IOP (Intensive Outpatient Therapy), which is a drug rehab program that lasts three or four months. I then signed up for another Section 8 program called Shelter Care Plus to help get me off of the streets.

            My case manager took me to Ashtabula County Job and Family Services to sign me up for the PRIDE Program at Goodwill. It took me almost two months to get approved for the Shelter Care Plus, but thankfully, I now have my own apartment and have been there for four months. During that time, I had also managed to start my drug classes, and have since graduated from that.  Now I’m following up with a group called Relapse Prevention, and attending 12 step meetings regularly.  I just recently got a sponsor, which I am very excited about.  Now that I am back from maternity leave, I have started the PRIDE Program at Goodwill again, and this time, I am not pregnant, so I can fully participate in all of the classes and work. I am very thrilled to see where I can go and what I can accomplish. I have nothing but a positive outlook on my new journey in life, now that the path has taken an uplifting turn.

What Was Your First Job?: By Sandi Allison

This question was recently asked of a few employees here at the Goodwill office. Below are the beginning jobs in which everyone started out —most were less than glamorous, but each was a starting point nonetheless. Most people start out “low on the ladder” to success, and have to work their way up from there. These are the steps that you have to take as you develop work skills and habits that shape you into the professional you become. There are many rungs on the ladder of success!

The Art of Rolling With the Punches: By Harry Corbissero

          ROLLING WITH THE PUNCHES is what I call a “life skill,” meaning we have a whole lifetime to continue to develop such a capacity.

          It is a skill pertinent to the sphere of work, which is why I have ongoingly dealt with it as a class theme over my long years as an instructor here, but a topic with an obviously broader reference.

          So, at work or in life generally, the skill alludes to our ability to maintain our balance on the—at times—extremely rocky path of life, and to have the resiliency to get back on our feed on those occasions we do get knocked down.

          You perhaps are already getting the picture of how productive an influence Goodwill is in helping people who have been impacted by one adversity or another do this very thing—gain a reentry into the workforce after some rough sledding, or overcome the punch of “no experience,” if still a newcomer to the game.

          Yet, I have a bit of an ulterior motive in introducing this theme in my present story….

          One reason—but a very significant one—Goodwill is a great place to work, in my opinion, is because of the visionary prowess of our CEO, Eric Schwarz, currently obligating all who work with him to roll with some unprecedented new punches at this agency.

          Eric has one foot in the now, rooted in the past, with an awareness of all the good accomplished in these former eras, but also with one foot invested in the unknown future.  The expansion of both our services and service areas newly underway here constitute a feat of growth unheralded in this organization’s history.

          Eric is quite zealous in his determination to help as many people as possible during his watch, and the growth anticipated is boundlessly spectacular and veers in many new directions.

          Like our leader himself, however, we all have to trust a vision in the throes of creation, struggling to be born.   It’s an exhilarating rite of passage.

          There is an exquisite intricacy to the balancing act this thrust demands; you can see why it is best considered an art.

Comments From Our President/CEO, Eric Schwarz

          On October 25th, I had the privilege of attending the Erie Non-Profit Partnership conference at the Bayfront Convention Center in Erie, PA. The theme of the conference was “Resilience”. For those of us invested and operating in the Non-Profit side of the market there is an uncanny need for us to be culturally resilient. Conditioning our organizations, strategic thinking and positioning to move consistently forward without interruption of services is critical for us to increase and sustain outcomes. My attendance at this conference proved to me to be highly valuable in framing my vision for market services and the development of our organizations service strength as we proceed with resilience to dial in and sustain programs that strengthen our community. The conference was a brilliant mix of pointed sessions oriented towards the theme of selling value in services, promoting them effectively and understanding how to appeal to your supporters. My take away from participating in this event was that Goodwill needs to continue to drive for long-term sustainable outcomes. If we touch a life, I want to know that we touched it for a lifetime and in that touch we handed off some of our hard-earned resilience.

          Thank you all again for your support at Goodwill Industries of Ashtabula, Inc. Serving Lake, Geauga, Ashtabula, Erie and Crawford Counties.

Filling A Fulfilling Position: By Zach Knight

          Whether I’m taking pictures for marketing materials, positioning signs I have created, or taking a quick stroll on my lunch break, there is a decent chance that one has seen me around one or more of our Goodwill locations. My name is Zach Knight and I am Goodwill’s new Marketing Specialist. I can briefly be summarized as a 23-year-old Penn State graduate who has a love for marketing and a knack for music. 

        Having always been involved in music to some degree, I decided to pursue my hobby with a more serious approach approximately six years ago. I found myself in a more professional recording studio, playing bigger shows, and expanding “my brand” to all platforms of social media. In the midst of having the desire of achieving some sort of musical success, I was left figuring out ways to promote myself on the largest level I could on the little budget and few resources I had. Over time, I was able to acquire small but favorable success through my self-marketing endeavors, obtaining over 1.3 million views on YouTube, shooting a couple music videos, and having my songs globally played on store playlists in popular retail chains such as Abercrombie & Fitch. Throughout these attainments, it had completely gone over my head that what I was doing was in fact, marketing. I loved everything about the promotional and marketing aspects of things and seeing exactly how far I could run with them. When it came to choosing my (final) major while completing my undergraduate degree, I didn’t even have to think twice.

          I graduated with a marketing degree from Penn State in December of 2015. Post-graduation, I had spent nearly six months searching high and low for a marketing position that seemed to also have been searching for me as well. I was hired as Goodwill’s Marketing Specialist towards the end of May 2016, and it has since been nothing but the most fulfilling occupation in more ways than one. Goodwill promotes a hand up, second chances, and building self-sufficiency; all principles and ideologies that align with my own. Since the beginning of my employment, I have been privileged to meet a countless number of people and hear stories on how Goodwill has helped change their life around and get them back on their feet. Directly or indirectly, I know my efforts here at Goodwill will contribute to these stories, and I am more than eager to see the ways in which that will be done. At the end of the day, the turnaround we see from clients and program participants is what keeps us, the Goodwill staff, inspired; that’s what keeps us fulfilled. 

Upcycling At Goodwill: By Esmond Colvin

          Joy Henry and Myles Beckwith are the current driving forces behind the production of our Goodwill wipers. What are wipers, you ask? Wipers are textiles (clothing items) which are taken daily from our quality pulls (which is when we take items out of our clothing that are not good enough to sell). Shirts that will be made into wipers are also removed while sorting in our textile area. They are then collected, inspected, and cut into wipers.  We produce two types of wipers, terry cloth and 100% cotton wipers. They're separated into both types, and then cut into large squares of cloth. The terry cloth is placed inside boxes and each box is finished when it is weighed in at 30 lbs. The 100% cotton wipers are made from mainly t-shirts that are unsalable in their present condition.  This allows us to recycle the unusable t-shirts into functional wiper cloths that are then available for sale. The wipers are then placed inside bags or boxes, and then weighed to 50 lbs. per box or 10 lbs. per bag. We sell our wipers to surrounding businesses; they use them for a variety of things.  Businesses that currently purchase wipers in bulk from Goodwill are factories, car and boat detailing operations, house-keeping businesses, and machine shops. Also, regular store customers are able to purchase wipers. They can place an order by calling the number listed to the right. Production in our wiper area is consistent throughout the year.

          If you are interested in purchasing our wipers in bulk quantity, please contact us at (440)-964-3565—we would be happy to serve you, as you would be supporting the mission of Goodwill; “Building self-sufficiency through the power of work.”

Life Goes On: By Chloe Quinn

          Meet Keith Griffin, a recent participant in our Community Work Adjustment program.  He recently spent a week working in different departments in the production area of the Ashtabula Goodwill.  Keith had worked here at Goodwill previously, but he returned to us for his program in a different capacity.  He spent that week sharpening his work skills and deciding whether he was ready to go back to work for good. He had become blind through an injury to one eye, and, afterwards, the other eye was negatively affected by cataracts. He acclimated to life with limited vision slowly but steadily.  Today, the remaining vision in his left eye is aided by glasses.

          Keith is not a native to Ohio.  Instead, he comes to us from his hometown of Brooklyn, New York. He has been a resident of Ohio for the last 15 years, and raised his large family right here in Ashtabula. His four children are each a success in their own right. His youngest is a freshman at Lakeside High School; she plans to move to Paris and become a fashion designer.  His other daughter attends Baldwin Wallace, and is on track to become a veterinarian.  His oldest son is attending college at OSU, and is following his lofty dream of becoming a neurosurgeon.  “He always took to school real easy,” Keith explains. Last but not least, his eldest daughter is practicing as a nurse, having graduated recently from OSU. “I’m really proud of all of my kids,” he says.

          Keith, himself, has been out of the workforce for the past three years, having been dealt the blow over those years of slowly becoming someone who is legally blind.  The last position he held was at TA in Kingsville as a dishwasher.  Previous to that, he worked here at Goodwill, Ashtabula as a truck helper and an attendant on the dock. When asked how it felt to come back to work, he replied, “It felt like a relief coming back to work.  Like I didn’t give up.  Life goes on despite being blind.”

          During his time at Goodwill, Keith worked in two different areas: Electronics and Machinery (E&M) and in the wipers station.  In E&M, Keith spent time with battery and power-operated items to test whether they were in good, workable condition.  In the wipers station, Keith used a machine to carefully cut unsalable t-shirts into wiper-sized cloths that will be sold in bulk to car washes (among other uses).  Despite his visual impairment, Keith picked up the new routines in each station quickly, and was able to work almost completely independently in the wipers area by his last day on the job. His job coach, Megan Myers, was on-hand for the entirety of the program, in case Keith needed any assistance or guidance.

          Keith was asked how he felt about his time spent here at Goodwill. “Great!” he answered enthusiastically, “The people, and the environment, made me feel real comfortable.” It was a pleasure spending time with you, Keith. Thank you for letting Goodwill participate in your adventure in returning to work.

How Do You Build a Team?: By Becky Coder

         What is the importance of building teams? In my twenty-plus years of being in a leadership role and managing others, my personal goal has always been to bring out the best in others and to produce the most positive possible results by working together. This philosophy helps in the creation of new relationships between people in the workplace and allows me to discover new skills in my employees. These skills were not previously apparent when they were simply exerting effort to meet the demands of their job description. Many a time I asked myself: “How am I going to build teams?” The answer is this: because I have a vision, I am committed, and I trust in my abilities, I have been able to develop many productive teams. We have been moved towards challenge, through significant changes, and the end result was more confidence: individually, and as a whole.

       How have I created conditions for effective teamwork in the workplace?  It took creating the conditions that allowed ideas and people to flourish, employees to come together and to feel empowered, for performance to flow. As employees found out how important it was to be aware of the strengths and skills of others, each employee helped others fulfill their roles more effectively. We built good working relationships and connections between employees.  In the pursuit of challenging and meaningful team goals, we moved towards encouraging effective teamwork in the workplace.

          I have found that there are three factors important in building teams. The first one is to develop individual strengths. Chances are, an individual already knows their own role and skills they bring to the team.  The second is to establish good collaborative working relationships with others. Finally, it is important to support each of them in their pursuit of worthwhile and meaningful goals. One of the primary reasons for developing a positive team environment is to produce more positive outcomes. This creates a more effective, efficient, and productive work environment that helps to ensure success.  By working together, as a team, we accomplish more.

Values and Principles of a Person-centered Practice: By Sandi Allison

          Goodwill Industries of Ashtabula, Inc. practices the values and principles of a person-centered practice. Person-centered practices include both “person-centered thinking” and “person-centered planning.” Person-centered thinking involves a deep respect for individuals and their equality.  Person-centered planning involves a process and approach for determining, planning for and working toward what an individual wants for his or her future and life satisfaction.

To be person-centered means:

- Treating individuals and family members with dignity and respect

- Helping individuals and families become empowered to set and reach their personal goals

- Recognizing the right of individuals to make informed choices and take responsibility for

    those choices and related risks

- Building on the strengths, gifts, talents, skills, and contributions of the individual and those

    who know and care about the individual

- Fostering community connections in which individuals can develop relationships, learn,

    work/produce income, actively participate in community life and achieve their full potential

- Promising to listen and act on what the individual communicates

- Pledging to be honest when trying to balance what is important to and important for the person

- Seeking to understand individuals in the context of their age, gender, culture, ethnicity, belief system, social and income status, education, family, and any other factors that make them unique

- Acknowledging and valuing families and supporting their efforts to assist family members

- Recognizing and supporting mutually respectful partnerships among individuals, their

    families, communities, providers, and professionals

- Advocating for laws, rules, and procedures for providing services, treatment, and supports that meet an individual’s needs and honor personal goals

- Endorsing responsible use of public resources to assure that qualified individuals are served

    fairly and according to need

Comments From Our President/CEO, Eric Schwarz

          Before each issue of “In Focus” gets distributed, it gets routed through my office for a final look. Last month, I spent a few extra minutes reading Harry’s essay on the “Three Eights”. This was due to my concern that the message did not encourage follow- through in work situations that were not the “perfect job”. I completely agree that in the best circumstances, investing “the working eight hours” of your life in a job you enjoy is ideal and should be a personal goal. The problem is this: learning takes place in all environments and sometimes the best learning is reached through adversity. I did not enjoy all the jobs I worked but I can honestly say, all of the jobs I held led me to the success I’ve encountered in my working life.  My advice if you want the working eight to pay dividends is simple: your attitude about work needs to be positive even when you don’t want to work. Your ability to “stick it out” is critical to build a stronger résumé and story for your dream job interview, and finally, using eight hours of your day to be miserable for pay is not bad if you are learning lessons from the experience. I encourage this sacrifice to all those who are currently out of work.   Work builds character and knowledge. You don’t lay idle and wait for the dream job, you work for it!

The Three Eights: By Harry Corbissero

         There is a symbol I innovated when I first started working at Goodwill a number of years ago, illustrating what I believed was the very first thing people had to realize, under the general topic of job awareness. I used it to illustrate a premise I felt to be of vital importance for people just entering the workforce—the status of many of our clients—a relevance just as important today as it had been back then. And that is that our day is divided, quite simply, into three eight-hour segments: one for sleep, one for work, and one to have “fun”.

          The concept can suggest that “work is a lifestyle”—a way of life, as in the old days welfare had been—involving at least a third of your time for the greater portion of your time on earth—eight hours a day on average, for 20 to 30 years.

          As such, work is ideally not just something to be “fitted in” only to earn money; the high priority should be placed on finding work that suits you as an individual (the topic of another study unit), that you can take some real pleasure in doing. This makes sense because your life has more value than can be measured by dollar signs.

          The reason for this conclusion is also expressed in the symbol: Our life is not really the compartmentalized affair the symbol depicts.  If a person is totally unhappy for the eight hours a day he is working, this will infuse the rest of his life with the same colorization of regret, regardless of the degree of income involved. In short order, this could lead to a very drab existence.

          In my own situation I like to exchange ideas with people, and have been most fortunate to be able to find work that allows for this, concurrent to generating a livelihood.  To date it continues to be an enriching experience.

          If we are working “only for money” but at some task which goes against the personal grain in some fashion, I believe we will end the game feeling quite unfulfilled. I also believe it’s important for folks to know this at the very start of their vocational life if possible, rather than waiting until time runs out.

          To have a happy life, you must have a happy job… the “three eights” all constitute parts of one whole. This would seem to constitute a significant idea to include under the general banner of workforce development, one of both timeless and universal importance.

Picture Perfect: By Chloe Quinn

          On Saturday, July 30th, participants crowded Bridge Street as the Arts on Bridge Street Festival was in full-swing.  Vendors peddled their artworks, others sold tasty snacks, and a good time was to be had by all at this annual happening in historic Ashtabula Harbor.

          Inside Goodwill of Ashtabula, another part of the festival was occurring.  The winners, as well as all of the participants, of Goodwill’s first annual Photo Contest found all of their beautiful photographs hung and displayed for the public to see in Goodwill’s Topky Community room (on Goodwill Drive, next to the store). There were almost thirty photographers—amateur and professional—who tried their hand at entering the contest this year.  There were six categories, with a $50 Goodwill cash prize awarded for each.  The categories were as follows: Beach Scene, Human Interest Scene, Ship Scene, Wildlife Scene, Lift Bridge Scene and Selfie Category.

           The best-tried category was the Lift Bridge Scene, by far.  Many local photographers took it upon themselves to capture the iconic bridge at every angle possible, from day to night scenes, still shots and action shots, much like the winning shot that depicted a time-lapse scene, with fuzzy lines of car’s lights going by.

          Then there were the other winners, who were all equally stunning.  Marjorie, who won the Human Interest category for her beautiful shot of a young, blonde girl holding a fuzzy puppy, both yawning in unison, spoke up about her winning entry.   The young girl, Marjorie explained, was her grand-daughter, and they were visiting a puppy sanctuary.  “I just shoot just what I see, just like it is,” Marjorie explained, “And I never, ever use Photoshop. You can do anything with that stuff, and I don’t like using it.”

          Overall, the contest was quite a success, and it contributed its own measure of color to a very colorful event.  Plans are already in the works to make next year’s program even more comprehensive.