Photo by Amy Condra
Tim Slavin, left, Community Sevice Board Director and Deputy County Administrator Marilyn Blake help officials from Goodwill cut the ribbon on the new LogoThis location last week.
The M and R Gauntlet is, according to the label affixed to its base, a “Textile Screen Printing System.” It can print words and images on as many as 1,200 shirts a day.
Big and blue, the Gauntlet is a formidable piece of equipment. Seven arms stretch from its center to its seven flat sleeves. These sleeves hold shirts, and anything else that is ready to be screen printed.
Seven automated printers rotate, with a rhythmic shusssh, shusssh sound, over the sleeves. They stop over each one, pressing down and spreading ink across cloth until a design emerges.
Today, one of those designs is a company name: LogoThis.
LogoThis is a community-based, non-profit business that provides textile screen printing and embroidery services.
The business also provides six jobs for Hanover County residents that have overcome obstacles to employment, including disabilities and other special needs. They are developing and practicing job skills that keep operations running smoothly.
On Nov. 8, LogoThis celebrated its grand opening by inviting the community to tour the facility, including the back room where production takes place.
“See why I did the white? It pops out more!” said one worker, when asked how the process works. “Then it goes through the dryer and (then) it’s ready to send to a customer.”
This worker notes the importance of accuracy, and says that they count the shirts carefully. “If you order 100 shirts, you’d like to get 100 shirts!” he said, laughing.
Customer satisfaction is important here, as is the quality of the work. In the hallways hang brightly colored patches, shirts and caps that bear designs LogoThis has created and manufactured for local clients such as Hanover County Parks and Recreation, Pocahontas Middle School and the Hanover County Sheriff’s Office.
For 15 years, LogoThis was named Logomotion and was owned and operated by Hanover County’s Community Services Board, which provides mental health, mental retardation and substance abuse services to individuals and families in our community.
Last spring Hanover County invited not-for-profits to submit proposals to assume responsibility for the Logomotion operation. In July, the county donated the business, including all equipment, to Goodwill Industries International, Inc., as part of a collaboration that it anticipates will create more job opportunities for local residents with special needs.
“Goodwill is a very entrepreneurial organization to begin with,” said Mike Winckler, VP of WorkForce Development for Goodwill. “To assume ownership and responsibility for an ongoing entity, we get the opportunity to take over a business enterprise that is really well-suited to the ideas that we have about employment.”
According to Goodwill’s website, the organization’s mission is to “enhance the quality and dignity of life for individuals, families, and communities on a global basis, through the power of work, by eliminating barriers to opportunity for people with special needs, and by facilitating empowerment, self-help, and service through dedicated, autonomous local organizations.”
LogoMotion is planning to add more positions in 2008 and 2009.
In the meantime, the business is happy with their current employees. Said Winckler, “They are doing a good job!”
For More Information…
LogoThis is located at 10417 Dow-Gil Road in Ashland. To learn more about their services or to place an order call 412-2040 or visit http://www.logothis.org. To find out more about available services for those with disabilities, visit Goodwill at http://www.goodwill.org or Hanover County Community Services Board at http://www.co.hanover.va.us/csb
