ABILITY Magazine Interview: Richard E. Marriott

(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: "Nobody ever makes
a great success out of a 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, "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 we're working with. They identify

students who could possibly be 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 someone 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 best how they can apply
their individual talents, and it's a no-brainer.

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