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(music)

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So many people are sitting around saying,
"Well, our job isn't quite exactly what

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I want, I'm here for something else. And
something else, and all of a sudden it's

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three years later and they still haven't
got a job." Hey, if it means cooking

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hamburgers at McDonald's, get a job. Get
out there and get some experience and go

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after it. Now, that was one thing my father
taught me, and just beat it into me from the

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time I was a little kid: "Nobody ever makes
a great success out of a life workin' 40

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hours a week." When he was 14 and a half
years old, his father sent him to Omaha,

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Nebraska, with a whole trainload of sheep.
By himself. To sell the sheep.

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Fourteen-and-a-half years old! Come on, he
had his first pair of long pants when

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he did that. He went and sold all the
sheep and came home. And he said, "He told

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me what to do, he never told me how
to do it."

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(laughter)

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In 1989, my brother and I and my folks
were trying to decide - my mother and my

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father had passed away in 1985 - we were
trying to figure out what segment of the

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population, of the youth population, can
we help out. What can we do. And we sat

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down and went through everything we could
think of. We said, "You know, young people

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with disabilities are making a tremendous
contribution to our company. We've been

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hiring them for years. But most of them
have- they are unemployed! And what we

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need to do is get in there and try and find
a way of helping these young people get

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an opportunity for full-time employment.
So over the the past 23 years, Bridges has

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helped more than 18,000 young people
find meaningful employment.

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(applause)

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What Bridges does... We go work with the
special education groups and the voc

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rehab groups and so forth in the various
cities we're working with. They identify

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students who could possibly be Bridges
candidates. Our employer representatives

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work with these young men and women,
and we train them how to make an

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application for a job, how to interview,
how to perform work, how to have

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responsibility, how to do day-to-day job
responsibilities. I spoke today about this

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sweet girl named Maria in Dallas. Hired
by the Bank of America, they'd never

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anybody out of the program. She has spina
bifida, she could barely walk. But, you

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know, she said, "People don't think I can
do anything because I can't walk straight."

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But the Bank of America hired her. She is
a sensation! I mean, she's had three

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promotions, they've hired 32 people since
from the Bridges program, and because

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she is so darn good. These kids are great
for the team morale. I mean, people who

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work with them say, "Here is someone who's
truly excited about their job!"

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(laughter)

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I mean, wow! They show up, they work hard,
they're happy, they're just excited to be

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there and be performing a useful service.
And it's good for everybody!

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We've dealt with 4,800 different employers
down through the years. I mean, there

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are a lot of employers out there. And
it's usually we're educating the kids how

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to apply for jobs, and we're also educating
the employers how to work with people with

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disabilities, and how to be comfortable
with them. And the comfort level is the

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most important single thing. We can get them
comfortable with working with these young

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people and know best how they can apply
their individual talents, and it's a no-brainer.

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These kids can really make contributions.
They can help us, they can with our

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morale, they can help with our bottom line,
they can help with our participation in

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the community. You know, it's a terrific
opportunity for them, to really bring

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these young people into the community and
into the business community.