Goodwill Industries honors its achievers

By DORIS COOK - Staff Writer
Star Beacon

May 08, 2008 11:27 pm

— GENEVA-ON-THE-LAKE — Goodwill Industries of Ashtablua Inc. continues to push its mission of changing lives every day as employees, staff, and trustees of the organization gave out service and achiever awards Wednesday.
The annual dinner, held at Geneva Lodge & Conference Center, drew more than 80 people.
GIA executive director Dorothy Altonen, operations manager Jill Oliver and job developer Terry Schepley handed out the awards. Max Whetson of Rock Creek, who is a production assistant to Oliver, received the achiever of the year award.
Oliver told the audience Whetson changed his life around after completing a chemical abuse rehab program in 2005. At Goodwill Industries, she said, “Max took his program seriously here, worked hard and was promoted. He has changed his life in so many ways, paid off court fines, obtained his driver’s license and got back with his family.”
Whetson, in accepting the award, along with a special certificate from U.S. Rep. Steven LaTourette, R-Bainbridge, thanked his co-workers, Oliver and others for supporting him.
Tim Countryman, also from Rock Creek, was referred to GIA by the Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation, Schepley said as he presented the award. Countryman has a steady custodial job at an Orwell manufacturing plant on a contract basis.
“I got hurt in an accident on April 4, 2004. I worked for a tree service company and fell with the tree crushing me. People at Goodwill, my wife and family have been so supportive. I can’t thank them enough,” Countryman said.
Countryman went through a lengthy physical therapy and recuperation period before referral to the GIA Job Placement Services. He has held the custodial job for two years and exhibits a good work ethic, Schepley said.
Guest speaker for the evening, the Rev. Neroy Carter, pastor of New Hope Pentecostal Church in Ashtabula, said change is not to be feared. “We are preachers of change by nature. Change comes naturally and it is good for us,” Carter said, referring to Goodwill Industries Inc. mission goals.
Many times change is necessary to promote growth and improve lives, Carter said. A U.S. Air Force veteran, Carter continued his education and went into the ministry, earning a theology degree from the Apostolic Bible Institute in St. Paula.
Through the years, Carter has traveled overseas, teaching and preaching in churches. He worked with a London colleague to open a mission school and orphanage in 1996 in Nigeria. For the last two years, Carter, with his London friend, partnered with the Free Wheelchair Mission in Irvine, Calif., to distribute the wheelchairs overseas and in West Africa.
Carter urged the audience to make positive changes in people’s lives everywhere they go. At the same time he lauded the work of Goodwill Industries of Ashtabula, which covers Lake, Ashtabula counties, and two counties in neighboring Pennsylvania helping those in need.