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Highlands Today

Disabled Show Their Job Skills With Mentors

NATIONAL DISABILITY MENTORING DAY

Kathy Waters/Highlands Today

Sweetbay Supermarket baker Christy Thompson helps mentee Ricky Singer with decorating a cake on Wednesday. Singer, a participant of the Disability Mentoring Day, learned all aspects of a supermarket.

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By Douglas  Carman | Highlands Today

Published: October 17, 2007

Ricky Singer donned a hair net Wednesday morning as he stood in front of the Sweetbay's meat department in Sebring.

"I'm having different jobs," Singer said, describing what he was about to do. He said he was shown how to ground meat for hamburgers already, but he was looking forward to his next job: frosting a cake at the bakery.

Singer and dozens of others were shadowing at several Highlands County businesses for Disability Mentoring Day, a national event set up by The American Association of People with Disabilities and hosted locally by the Ridge Area ARC.

Approximately 40 "mentees" with various physical and mental disabilities followed store managers, bankers, veterinarians and county officials as they showed their mentors what they could do.
Cameron Barnard, the director of Employment Services for the ARC, said it was also an "awareness thing" for employers, including those who participated in the program.

"We all have abilities," Barnard said. "It's not always about getting hired ... it's knowing how it works in the community."

At Sweetbay, store manager Donnie Strickland and baker Christy Thompson pulled out two cakes for Singer to pick from. He chose the chocolate cake, and Thompson then showed him how to frost it. One spin of the cake to frost the sides, then using a frosting tube, Singer striped the top and smoothed it out.

Strickland said this was the first time Sweetbay participated in the program, even though they previously hired Sebring High School students in a similar shadowing course.

Some employers said they hired a few employees through the ARC in the past. Sharon Schuler, manager of the Hotel Jacaranda and also Avon Park's mayor, spoke highly of two of her employees who came in after a previous mentorship.

"They are dependable, they are meticulous with their job," she said. "It's what we get out of them."
Rose Tilley, who helped part-time with the hotel's cleaning for 9 months, said she enjoyed the company at her job. "I like everybody."

The county also took a mentee. At the DeSoto City Fire Station, Highlands County Emergency Planner Tom Moran realized that Patrick Patterson already knew a thing about water pressure, as he examined the gauges on Engine 20.

"Pounds per square inch," Patterson said, reading the P.S.I. readings on each dial. He once worked at a marina. "I remember that!"

Barnard said an average of three or four mentees were hired the past two years the ARC participated in the Disability Mentoring Day.

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