Every year on International Day of People with Disability we celebrate work milestones across our sites with Years of Service awards. In the lead up to IDPWD on December 3, we're shining the spotlight on some of our many dedicated clients who’ve notched up decades at Bedford!
Panorama team member Joyce has reached a monumental achievement of 55 years at Bedford, currently making her our longest-serving employee!
Joyce fondly remembers her first jobs at Bedford, which included sewing sheets, overalls, and seat covers, as well as uniforms for the Royal Adelaide Hospital.
"When I first started there I couldn't do very much at all and I wouldn’t talk to anybody, but I learnt lots of things like how to sew properly and how to pack things and now I talk to everybody and anybody. I love how I can have a laugh with everyone here."
"If I didn’t have this I would probably be sitting at home and bored.”
Joyce has certainly seen a few changes at Bedford over the last half a century!
"When I first started, Panorama was a lot smaller....a lot of the buildings you see on the site now were bare paddocks back in the day!" she says.
Also reaching a huge millstone this year is fellow packaging team member Russell, who is celebrating 50 years at Bedford!
At 17, Russell joined what was then Bedford's woodwork department, and has since worked with our fundraising and packaging teams.
"I like the people I work with, they are very friendly," he says.
"I'll see how far I can go here!"
What an incredible achievement - thank you for all your hard work over the years!
A shoutout also to Joyce and Russell's colleague, Bill, who recently celebrated 51 years at Bedford. Bill also started in woodwork, before moving into the packaging team.
What an incredible achievement for our Panorama trio - 156 years worth of knowledge and experience between them!
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