Specialty Industries celebrates milestone anniversaries of employees

By Leah Rainwater

About 20 employees were celebrated for their various years of service at Specialty Industries on Wednesday afternoon.

Families and friends were invited to come celebrate with their loved ones and take a tour of the facility.

“We’re a packaging company, but it’s our mission to provide meaningful employment for people who have a disability,” said President and CEO Byron Myers.

One employee who was celebrated has been working at Specialty Industries for 50 years.

“I graduated from high school in ‘73 and I worked at Hotel Robidoux for a couple of years and started here in ‘74,” said James Smallwood.

Smallwood said he’s worked a few different positions at Specialty Industries. From cleaning, to stacking dog and cat food, Smallwood said he’s “just a hard-working guy.”

When asked how many more years he thinks he’s going to stay with the company, Smallwood simply said, “I don’t know.”

Myers attributed the great working atmosphere to be one of the reasons employee retainment is high.

“I mean, I want to work here,” said Myers. “I mean, I enjoy it a lot. First of all, the atmosphere is great, most of our folks really enjoy seeing each other, they enjoy the family kind of feel that we create.”

Myers said the company also provides more than a place of employment for their employee’s.

“We try to do additional things such as, get our folks out into the community,” said Myers. “We’ll work with the Mustangs and go to a Mustangs game every summer. The Robidoux Resident Theater folks are really good and will help us take our folks to a musical every year.”

Myers said those with disabilities employed at Specialty Industries learn a lot about what it means to have a job and the little details that go with it.