Located in: News
Posted on: November 22nd, 2010 No Comments

Walgreens: working with disabilities

Michael Chamberlain
Guest Reporter

When most people think of Walgreens, a pharmacy comes to mind. People usually do not think of Walgreens as a company which likes to hire folks with disabilities. However, Walgreens does hire people with disabilities. In fact, in Grand Junction, Walgreens has made it their mission to hire people who have disabilities.
Matthew Miller, who has Down syndrome works at a local Walgreens.
Miller, 31, lives with his parents in Grand Junction. Miller was born with Down syndrome, a chromosomal disorder. Instead of living at home and feeling sorry for himself, he and his parents decided to get him some experience in the work force.
Walgreens officials contacted the organization, Spectra, which helps people with disabilities find employment. Spectra trains them for jobs within a company.
“Matt is very positive. Everybody gets along with him and he brings out positivity in the other employees,” said Jason Glenn, the store’s general manager.
Glenn has been Miller’s manager for the past four years.
On a typical work day, Miller prices merchandise, brings shopping carts in from outside, greets customers as they enter the store and picks shopping baskets up from outside. He has a specialized workload. He works three hours a day for three days a week.
While Miller is working he also has certain rules since he can’t do certain tasks that other employees can. Those rules include: not being able to use the intercom and having to get assistance from a co-worker when a customer asks him for help.
“You learn as you go along on what Matt can do,” Glenn said.
When Miller isn’t at Walgreens, he works at the local Goodwill store.
“It’s awesome working here. I love it,” Miller said.
Glenn said, “Matt is a very independent person for being in his condition and instead of bringing our store down, he is very productive which helps our store out.”
u
mchamber@mesastate.edu

Michael Chamberlain is a Mesa State student that also works at Walgreens.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

New User? Click here to register