Craig Foster

by Christopher Six, Media Marketing Assistant

Much of Shawnee’s life has been a struggle. Lifelong difficulties with reading and writing have made it difficult to find and hold on to a job. But working as a cashier at Horizon Goodwill’s Shepherdstown location has truly been an exercise in removing barriers to create opportunity.

Originally from Fairfax County, in school Shawnee found herself in special classes she describes as akin to a sixth-grade level.

“My biggest problem is reading and writing. I can read better than I can write,” she explains.

“I can’t really write nothing because I don’t know how to spell — it’s a disability,” she continues. “I always had problems in school, (but they) didn’t address it back then. They had me in classes, but I don’t think they had the IEPs (Individualized Education Programs) back when I went to school.”

Regardless, Shawnee really didn’t want to participate, because she felt there were students in those classes who were in more difficult situations than she was.

“I was that age, you know, I didn’t want to be in there. So I skipped a lot, and then, when I turned 18, I quit like an idiot,” she laments. “I have dreams every once in a while that I go back to school. And I’m like, so old in my dreams, I always end up quitting.”

Life after school led to a succession of jobs, but her reading and writing difficulties often held her back. At one point, she recalls applying for disability, only to find her application denied as her condition did not qualify.

“It’s very hard for me to fill out paperwork and explain my learning disability,” she explains.

A recent move to West Virginia found her in a familiar situation — struggling to find work.

“I had a lot of things going on. I lost my license and lost my place to live,” she said. “Someone let me and my daughter live with them since Corona was going on.”

Ultimately, she received help via the West Virginia Jobs and Hope program, training that eventually brought her to the Horizon Goodwill Shepherdstown location, where she was hired in January as a cashier.

It’s a job that she likes, and she strives to be a dependable employee despite challenges at home, including family and health issues. Shawnee has a 32-year-old son and a soon-to-be 16-year-old daughter.

She takes particular satisfaction in her customer service skills, noting she receives compliments on how she interacts with shoppers. A lifetime of experience has prepared her well, and it’s work that plays to her strengths.

“I don’t have a lot of issues here because we don’t do a lot of reading except when we have our meetings,” she said.

And Shawnee takes pride in the store’s reputation.

“We hear every single day this is the nicest store around,” she said. “We always get complimented on our store, because we work hard in this store to make it look nice.”

After a year-and-a-half living with someone else, Shawnee now lives in Inwood, about a 30-minute drive from Shepherdstown. With a housing voucher in hand, she also has the option to get out of her lease when something becomes available. While two dogs and the crunch in the housing market have made that challenging, she tends not to look too far ahead.

“I don’t have any goals. Every time I make goals, they go down the drain, so I go day-by-day,” she said.

Still, Shawnee is aware of the opportunities that have come her way, particularly in the last nine months. While at first, she shied away from talking about Horizon Goodwill’s round-up program for fear she would get tongue-tied, she’s an advocate now.

“I ask just about everybody who comes to my register,” she explained. “If they ask, ‘well, what is it for?’ I tell them it’s to help the local job program — I went through it back in January and look at me now!”

by Christopher Six, Media Marketing Assistant

When Jim Watson came to Hagerstown in 2015, he had been on the street for several years. A 2007 car accident had robbed him of his mobility and livelihood, leaving him in a wheelchair. On Oct, 26, he cut the ribbon to celebrate the remodeling of Horizon Goodwill’s South End Hagerstown store as its assistant manager.

It was a journey of determination and perseverance that would have been hard to imagine 14 years ago.

“I had a car accident in 2007. I wasn’t going to survive. Broke my neck, broke my back. I was in a power chair for seven years,” he explained. “They pretty much told me I would never walk again in my life.”

Unable to continue in his job stocking shelves at a market, he eventually found himself homeless, wheelchair-bound, and living in a tent.

It was while living in Frederick that he first began searching for help. As a Navy veteran, he ultimately found help with the Welcome Home Veterans Program. Following an interview, he was accepted into the program for a two-year stay.

“They finally gave me a chance to get on my feet,” he said.

Literally. Jim had been in that chair for seven years. They said he’d never walk again, “but me being the only left-hander in the family, coming out breach, stubborn, I wasn’t taking that for an answer.”

Without access to years of physical therapy, it took Jim’s own grit — the same kind of determination that has kept him 18-years sober — to see him through the darkest of times.

“I basically did much of my own physical therapy. I went to a Native American sweat lodge,” Jim said. “A friend of mine was a Native American. And he goes if you want to find peace, and healing, come with me.

“So I go into a sweat lodge and sit in there for two hours. When I came out, I bent down and touched my toes — basically no pain. I was amazed,” he continued. “I said, when can we go back in?”

Jim has been going ever since. He finds it both a physical and spiritual experience. In time, when he traced his ancestry, he discovered it had connected him with his own roots — his great-great-grandmother was a Nakota.

A key aspect of the Welcome Home Veterans Program is finding gainful employment. That brought him to Horizon Goodwill in 2016. He started out hanging clothes. When the new store was opening at South End, he was asked if he would like to apply and was offered a position.

By that time, he was living in income-based public housing in downtown Hagerstown. He sometimes took public transportation, but more often, preferred to walk the mile and a half to get to his new job.

“You figure, I was in a chair for seven years, so I’ve got seven years of walking to make up for,” he said. “If I had a choice to ride or walk, I’d walk. (The weather) didn’t bother me. I went through four pairs of shoes a year.”

Jim started in the South End location as a cashier. Later, he moved to the back of the store. When the store’s manager changed positions and the assistant manager was promoted, Jim became the assistant manager.

Now, after five years with Horizon Goodwill — the first job he has ever had with paid vacation and sick time — he has a car and the ability to take a vacation to see his daughter and grandkids in Kansas.

“My five-year-old granddaughter, I hadn’t seen since she was five months old. And I drove my car. I drove MY car,” he emphasized. “It was nice. Long drive, but I did it. It was fun.”

Jim finds his job empowering, giving him the ability to help others in difficult situations.

“I have a more positive outlook. I used to just roll over and wake up whenever. Now, I love waking up and helping people,” he said. ”We get people coming in. And (for example) their house burned down. What can they do? Or, what can we do? I don’t know if Goodwill has a program for that. But I will call HR, or I will call somebody, to find out.

That feeling of community extends to his colleagues — a relationship that goes beyond mere coworkers.

“When I got sick two years ago — I had bacterial meningitis — I was in the hospital for 17 days. They told me I wasn’t going to pull out of that,” he explained. “If it wasn’t for Penny out here — or cashiers knowing that she was a friend of my mom’s on Facebook — to get them to do a wellness check, they would have never found me. I was in my apartment for 21 hours in a coma before they found me. And that’s how close of a family the employees are at this store.

“And the whole time that I was out, customers were coming in asking about me,” he continued. “A couple of the customers even brought in cards when I came back when they saw me.”

What might the future hold for Jim at Horizon Goodwill? Perhaps responsibility for his own store?

“It’s a possibility. I know it’s big. There’s a lot to being a store manager at Goodwill,” he said.

He would be in the position to know. As the assistant manager, Jim works with the store’s manager every day learning all aspects of running the location so it is in good hands when she is off.

“She knows that the store is going to be here, and everything is taken care of.”