Vol. 10 No. 1 - Winter 2009

Employees of the Year 2008!

Pictured from left to right: Board of Trustees Chairman Patrick Sullivan, Setup Machinist Kevin Jones, BSC Store Manager Andy Bacon, President and CEO Kirk Adams

Congratulations to Andy Bacon and Kevin Jones, The Lighthouse for the Blind, Inc.’s 2008 Employees of the Year. The winners were honored and acknowledged at the annual Lighthouse Awards Ceremony this February. These awards are given for leadership in the blindness field to visually impaired employees who display outstanding personal and professional qualities. They will both travel to Kansas City for the National Industries for the Blind (NIB) Annual Training Conference in October. Andy Bacon will compete as an indirect labor representative for the Milton J. Samuelson Award and Kevin Jones will compete as a direct labor representative for the Peter J. Salmon Award.

Andy Bacon

Store Manager Andy Bacon at Express Supply in Ft. Lewis, Washington.

For three years, Andy Bacon has worked amidst the bustling scene of the Express Supply store at the US Army base in Fort Lewis, WA. “I would say the Lighthouse helps blind people become all that they can be through the training programs and the work experience,” Andy says. “It’s a great thing to watch people learn and grow and become successes in everything they do.”

Andy was born in Burlingame, CA and moved to Washington as a baby. For the past twelve years he has resided in Roy, a small rural city just outside of Tacoma. While studying in college to become a low voltage technician, he experienced complications from high blood pressure that resulted in damage to his optical nerves. Because of the tedious and color-specific nature of electrical work, Andy found himself needing to choose a different career path. He found Washington State Department of Services for the Blind through an internet search, and was given a job at Orion International to help assess his work skills. Afterward, he went to college for computer applications at Clover Park Technical College.

“I remembered hearing about Seattle Lighthouse from someone I worked with at Orion,” he reflects. “I looked up a job listing there shortly before I graduated, and interviewed for an administrative assistant position. They mentioned that a job opening was available for an assistant manager position at Ft. Lewis, which was much closer to my home. A year and a half later I was promoted to manager.”

Along with his on-the-job training, Andy learned how to use ZoomText and other adaptive technologies from the Seattle Lighthouse’s Computer Training Program (CTP). He was recently accepted into National Industries for the Blind’s Business Management Training (BMT) as well. This challenging, participant-centered program is facilitated by the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business Administration.

“I’ve learned a lot about working on a team,” Andy adds. “The team here is a lot stronger than any other place I’ve worked. Everyone is here to help each other out; it’s a great experience. I’d like to say that it is an honor and privilege to work for this company, it’s the most amazing place I’ve ever worked.”

Outside of working at Express Supply, Andy is an avid Seahawks fan, and enjoys camping, hiking, outdoor activities, spending time with his girlfriend of twelve years and their children, family barbecues, and making bonfires.

Kevin Jones

Setup Machinist Kevin Jones working in the phenolics shop

“I’m not looking for retirement yet,” says Kevin Jones, Setup Machinist at Seattle Lighthouse. “I would find it very hard to sit at home and not be working, or socializing with people.”

Kevin was born and raised in Melbourne, Australia. Growing up sighted, he experienced a big change at age sixteen when a poke in his right eye resulted in total vision loss for that eye. Nearly twenty years later in 1978, a mosquito entered his left eye, which led to a detached retina and legal blindness. Working at a printing plant in New Zealand at the time, Kevin went to the Royal Foundation for the Blind for assistance.

“The Royal Foundation for the Blind had a counselor explain to my employer which tasks I could still do in packing, and they were really amazed at what I could do with no sight,” he remembers. Although he was able to keep his job, he and his wife at the time split up and Kevin found himself contending with yet another big change.

“I met someone who was part of the American Taping Club, and sent my first cassette letter to a widow in Columbus, OH. For two years we traded tapes. I proposed to her on cassette tape, and then on the phone, and later we had photos taken of us and traded those as well,” he remembers. The two were married in New Zealand in 1982. They had a child who was born with Down’s Syndrome and four major heart defects. Eventually they moved to Bremerton, WA to gain access to Children’s Hospital in Seattle.

“When I moved here I didn’t know where the streets were, and had to have mobility training from State Services for the Blind in Tacoma to learn to navigate in Bremerton,” Kevin notes. “In 1985 I was told about Seattle Lighthouse and did two or three weeks of training there. One year later I got a call saying there was an opening in the annex building doing injection molding. I was later transferred to the machine shop and have been there since.”

Starting out on the de-burring bench, Kevin eventually moved to different areas of the shop until he was promoted to Setup Machinist. “With a little bit of training, I’ve come a long way,” he adds. “And now I can help new people here as well.”

Outside of work, Kevin has been a member of the Washington Council for the Blind for 23 years. He spent 19 years serving with the Peninsula Council of the Blind, until four years ago when he helped start a chapter in South Kitsap County, of which he is now President. He enjoys reading, listening to the news, watching movies, socializing, and old time radio.

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