(music)
So many people are sitting around saying, "Well, our job isn't quite exactly what
I want, I'm here for something else. And something else, and all of a sudden it's
three years later and they still haven't got a job." Hey, if it means cooking
hamburgers at McDonald's, get a job. Get out there and get some experience and go
after it. Now, that was one thing my father taught me, and just beat it into me from the
time I was a little kid, he says: "Nobody ever makes a great success out of life workin' 40
hours a week." When he was 14 and a half years old, his father sent him to Omaha,
Nebraska, with a whole trainload of sheep. By himself. To sell the sheep.
Fourteen-and-a-half years old! Come on, he had his first pair of long pants when
he did that. He went and sold all the sheep and came home. And he said, you know, "He told
me what to do, he never told me how to do it."
(laughter)
In 1989, my brother and I and my folks were trying to decide - my mother and my
father had passed away in 1985 - we were trying to figure out what segment of the
population, of the youth population, can we help out. What can we do? And we sat
down and went through everything we could think of. We said, "You know, young people
with disabilities are making a tremendous contribution to our company. We've been
hiring them for years. But most of them have- they are unemployed! And what we
need to do is get in there and try and find a way of helping these young people get
an opportunity for full-time employment. So over the the past 23 years, Bridges has
helped more than 18,000 young people find meaningful employment.
(applause)
What Bridges does... We go work with the special education groups and the voc
rehab groups and so forth in the various cities that we're working with. They
identify students who could possibly be possible Bridges candidates. Our employer representatives
work with these young men and women, and we train them how to make an
application for a job, how to interview, how to perform work, how to have
responsibility, how to do day-to-day job responsibilities. I spoke today about this
sweet girl named Maria in Dallas. Hired by the Bank of America, they'd never
anybody out of the program. She has spina bifida, she could barely walk. But, you
know, she said, "People don't think I can do anything because I can't walk straight."
But the Bank of America hired her. She is a sensation! I mean, she's had three
promotions, they've hired 32 people since from the Bridges program, and- Because
she is so darn good. These kids are great for the team morale. I mean, people who
work with them say, "Here is somebody who's truly excited about their job!"
(laughter)
I mean, wow! They show up, they work hard, they're happy, they're just excited to be
there and be performing a useful service. And it's good for everybody!
We've dealt with 4,800 different employers down through the years. I mean, there
are a lot of employers out there. And it's usually- We're educating the kids how
to apply for jobs, and we're also educating the employers how to work with people with
disabilities, and how to be comfortable with them. And the comfort level is the
most important single thing. We can get them comfortable with working with these young
people and know how they can best apply their individual talents, and it's a no-brainer.
These kids can really make contributions. They can help us, they can help with our
morale, they can help with our bottom line, they can help with our participation in
the community. You know, it's a terrific opportunity for them, to really bring
these young people into the community and into the business community.