October 12, 2007

Be Our Guest / Thomas Gray

Potential donors, former inmates respond to RecycleForce story

We very much appreciated the thoughtful story written about our program on the front page of the Sept. 28 issue of The Criterion.

We here at Workforce/ RecycleForce would like to thank the Catholic community for all the support we have been given.

We would especially like to thank David Siler, executive director of Catholic Charities and Family Ministries for the archdiocese, for the support and faith he has demonstrated.

And while the list of people and organizations in the Catholic community to whom we owe a note of gratitude is long, we would like to thank, in particular, Management 2000 and the Day family for the tremendous support they have repeatedly shown us.

Not surprisingly, we have already received several phone calls from people wishing to donate computers.

However, what has surprised me is the fact that we have already received more than a dozen phone calls from formerly-incarcerated individuals who are looking for work who have seen the article.

We would encourage any and all employers to think about giving a second chance to an individual who is trying to get back on his feet. We would be more than happy to act as a matchmaker.

Again, we would like to thank the Catholic community for its support.

(Thomas Gray is president of RecycleForce in Indianapolis.) †

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