(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.