Village Squire, 1978-06, Page 17° Hand -finished ceramics are among the products of ARC Industries at Dashwood,
ARC Industries
An amazing
achievement
BY STEPHEN NORTON
1 will always remember the little success story that unfolded at
the new -old house we had just purchased in Goderich last
summer. My wife and I had commissioned some people from a
•place called ARC Industries in a town called Dashwood to come.
to our house and perform some basic clean-up tasks around the
property.
We were new to the area so we knew virtually nothing of the
ARC people, save for the fact that they consisted of people
society refers to as "mentally handicapped", a very broad and
often a misleading term. Anyway. the incident that sticks in my
mind occured Mien the three men brought in to do the work and
their supervisor, a young lady, got around to the north side of bur
large two-story. frame house and looked way up at the second
floor v. indows. They were to be cleaned. The three gentlemen
turned to each other and all three immediately proclaimed that
the job was definitely well beyond their abilities. Much too high.
I know what they meant. I thought it was too high for me! That's
why I called someone on to do the job!
They were about to go looking for "lower", jobs, perhaps
pulling weeds on the lawn, but the supervisor picked out one of
them and assured him that he could make it up that long, wobbly
extension ladder and clean that window if he really just tried. He
gave her a flat no! She asked him again. Nicely, but firmly. She
assured him that he would be safe. 1 assured him that he would
be safe. We assured him that, indeed he would be safe. We told
him that we would hold the ladder so that he could go up and
wash that window. Slowly, haltingly and with appropriate
trembling. he proceeded up the ladder. He then carefully
°sashed and dried the window. Then he slowly descended to
comments of flattery that verged on hero worship from his fellow
w. orkers, his supervisor. and me. His face beamed as he accepted
the compliments. What ‘.as perhaps even more impressive than
VILLAGE SQUIRE/JUNE 1978. PG. 15.
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