A merry little Saturday
As many of you know, Blue Q employs a team of 12 differently-abled people in our product assembly department, and has for over twenty years. These rock stars are how we assemble our Lip Shit Lip Balm, and make retailer case packs of Blue Q gum, or assemble tall towers of shipping boxes, etc. (That is, when we're not busy with art classes and planting basil in the company garden, which is often.) The program is managed by Jen Miller, a social worker for Berkshire ARC. "These guys are the most hardworking, artistic, fun individuals you'd ever meet, and huge part of our company's culture," she says, "but as much as we help them accomplish their life goals, they help everyone at Blue Q reach theirs, too."
As you can imagine, we've been sorely missing the group since the Covid crisis required they shelter at home. So this past Saturday we filled up Blue Q Shoppers with frozen pigs in a blanket, chewy caramels, oranges, kickballs, correspondence kits to pop in the mail, pots for planting beans, kits to make tissue paper flowers, hand-built puzzles of each others' smiling faces, Batman comic books, a book of reminiscing blurbs the whole company worked on ... you get the idea. And the delivery team fanned out ... dropping off bags at the residences and group homes where Tim, Tina, Liz, and all of our chums live. It was so fun, seeing everyone smiling on their stoops in their t-shirts! Summer is coming, but we kinda warmed it up in advance. And in a heartwarming coda, Bill Wright, who works in Operations and takes all of the company photographs, was out later in downtown Pittsfield. He drove by where Bruce and Andrew live, and there they were, outside playing with their new kickball.
