CLEAR LAKE, Iowa - A North Iowa nonprofit organization that provides services to individuals so they may achieve greater independence through personal choice and community involvement held their 49th annual Walk Saturday morning.
Their signature fundraiser had a bit of a twist this year: it included a human foosball tournament that consisted of a pool play tournament with a single-elimination championship round that consisted of 6 teams from throughout the area, and a community crawl, with participants collecting stamps from downtown businesses listed on cards.
Jeri Bell is with One Vision's employment services, which helps connect employers with people with purpose.
"We have customized employment. We have people that are just going in and doing a job that maybe no one else had time to do, but it's important to the company to be successful. We have people that are right on the lines in factories and banks, we have people in grocery stores. We have people that get employee of the month, not because they're disabled, but because they're the employee of the month."
And that means a lot to her.
"It's one of the most satisfying things I've ever done in my life. I've taken people who've been in sheltered work for 40 years of their life, some for 25, who go into businesses now and are an integral part of their business. And if you ask them would you go back to sheltered work, they'd say absolutely not."