One good turn deserves another. It’s an old adage that Nina Willacey of Little Rock put to good use, first seeking help from Goodwill’s Beyond Jobs program, which offers training and education services for women who are unemployed or underemployed, and then returning the favor by providing assistance back to the nonprofit organization.
Willacey’s story with Goodwill Industries of Arkansas began late last year while she was shopping in one of its retail stores. She learned, via an announcement over the intercom, that Goodwill offers help for those searching for jobs.
The 58-year-old, now retired from AT&T, had worked for the company since 1978 as a communications technician.
“When it came time for me to start looking for a job again, everything had changed so much from the last time I’d done that,” she explains. “With all the new technology, I really didn’t know where to begin.”
After attending a meeting for the Beyond Jobs program in a forlorn classroom at Goodwill’s headquarters on West Seventh street in downtown Little Rock, Willacey, an artist who has studied interior design, created a plan for revamping the classroom.
“I came into a meeting and the room just spoke to me; it said, ‘Wow. Help me!’” she explained. “I was having trouble paying attention to what was going on in the meeting because my mind was racing with all the ways it could be improved.”
Willacey’s actions made her Goodwill Industries of Arkansas’ 2014 Volunteer of the Year. She will receive the award at the organization’s fifth annual fundraising luncheon Wednesday at the Clinton Presidential Center. The $100-a-ticket event, which is now sold out, will feature Brian Itzkowitz, president and chief executive officer of Goodwill Industries of Arkansas, as the keynote speaker. It will also feature a fashion show, “Turning Jeans Into Dreams,” with local celebrities modeling jeans from Goodwill stores.
Other individuals also being honored during the luncheon include Jo Layne Wilson with the Frank Lyon Achiever of the Year award and Rayvion Perkins as the Graduate of the Year. Businesses being recognized include Washington Barber College as Business/Community Partner of the Year and Home Depot Store No. 1401 of central Arkansas as Employer of the Year.
“The luncheon is a part of Goodwill Week, held annually the first week in May to raise awareness and educate the public about the organization’s mission,” explains Rebecca Brockman, public relations and community engagement manager for Goodwill of Arkansas. Other events held throughout the week include a career and information fair, a customer appreciation sale, the president’s breakfast, and a 5K race.
The Peace, Love, and Goodwill 5K begins at 8 a.m. Saturday at Murray Park and is open to all ages, with children under 10 free. Those wishing to register for the $25 race can do so at www.goodwillar. org/shop/5k.html. The career and information fair, which is open to the public, will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday at Goodwill Resource Center at 7400 Scott Hamilton Drive in southwest Little Rock. The customer appreciation sale is set for Thursday with 20 percent off (coupons available on Goodwill’s Facebook page) entire purchases made at all Goodwill stores (excluding outlet centers) across the state.
Willacey, an El Dorado native and a graduate of the high school there (class of 1974), received a bachelor’s degree in art education from Arkansas State University at Jonesboro. After living in Little Rock she moved to Fort Worth, where she took continuing education classes in interior design and painting. Her hobbies today include yoga, painting, drawing and photography.
The space has varied uses as a students’ classroom, meeting room, and gathering place for social events such a receptions. Willacey has designed one area of the room with formal seating, and has suggested replacing the pair of chalkboards with a dry erase board and a cork board, adding a podium, installing shelving for storage space, a small desk for individual work space, and another area with casual seating and a small table for food to serve as a reception space.
Willacey wanted to help Goodwill because of the assistance the organization has given her.
“It feels like a good place here,” she says. “It’s uplifting and not judgmental; instead they just work on helping people. They helped me tremendously in creating my resume online. I hadn’t created one since 1978,” she says, adding that the monthly meetings with the Beyond Jobs program also offer emotional support.
“They kept me going because when you are searching for a job, you have a lot of up and down days,” Willacey says, adding that the program, true to its name, goes beyond the job search, offering such gatherings as holiday parties and complimentary makeovers.
“How you’re feeling affects all the other aspects of your life, including your job search,” explains Tennille Hunter, program manager for the Horizons program. “Here at Goodwill, we try to take a holistic approach to all of our programs, not just focusing on a person’s one need like finding a job but also addressing all the other areas of their lives.”
In 2013, in addition to employing 525 Arkansans, the organization also helped another 1,279 across the state find jobs and provided 8,371 Arkansans with education, training, employment and support services.
Through Goodwill’s Beyond Jobs program, Willacey was introduced to the owner of the 360 Gallery in Little Rock and was invited to have two of her watercolor paintings exhibited there for six weeks in December and January.
“It was my first professional showing,” Willacey says, adding that she has donated one of her pieces of artwork to Goodwill and that it will be hung in the classroom she has redesigned once the work there is complete.
High Profile, Pages 37 on 05/04/2014