Our Team
Meet Our Super Star Packagers
While our main mission at Reeve's Tees is focused upon Down syndrome advocacy and awareness, we also strive to provide paid work and vocational training opportunities to teens and adults with special needs.
If you have ever ordered one of our tees, we hope you've enjoyed the experience of opening up a neatly packaged shirt. A lot of care goes into the packaging of our tees, and we'd like to introduce you to some of our wonderful packagers who put time, effort and care into each and every package.
Their diligence and dedication help to infuse each and every t-shirt with extra love! If you have ordered some tees, you may have even seen some of their names on the t-shirt packages that you have received.
John
John is 28 years old and lives at home with his mom and dad. His family includes two older brothers, a sister-in-law, and a niece and nephew.
His best friend and girlfriend is Sarah. They attended school together with highlights being homecoming dances, proms, and graduation. They look forward to celebrating their July birthdays. This includes going to the Dayton Dragon's baseball game with their names up on the scoreboard and attending a show at La Comedia dinner theater.
John also enjoys playing tennis with the BuddyUp Tennis program and participating in hip hop dance class. Both of these are coordinated with the Miami Valley Down Syndrome Association. He attends weekly exercise class, too. Music, movies, and taking pictures are favorite pastimes.
Other community activities include attending Sacred Heart Church, the Miami Valley Down Syndrome Association events, shows and musicals at the Dayton Performing Arts venues. His favorite local sports are the Dayton Dragons baseball and the Cincinnati Cyclones hockey.
John very much enjoys his job packaging Reeve's tees. He knows the process to complete the tasks and takes much pride in his work!
Sally
Sally is the youngest sibling in her family and has three older brothers: Brian, Brandon and Wesley. She also has four little nieces and nephews that she loves to play with!
After graduating from high school, Sally became a medical intern at a local hospital. She loves working hard, helping people, and learning new things through this program.
In addition to her internship, Sally has many other extracurricular activities that she participates in – including swimming and hip hop dancing. Her fellow dancers are in awe of her dance skills (one even commenting on how cool her hair looks when she flips it during her dance routine.)
Sally also has some weekly rituals that she looks forward to: once per week, she takes trips to the library with her mom. She loves reading books, and currently, her favorite novels are those in the Once Upon a Time TV Series. Her other favorite weekly ritual is allowing herself to indulge in some junk food on Saturdays.
We enjoy Sally’s enthusiasm and attention to detail. She does a fabulous job packaging Reeve’s Tees and puts so much care and love into her work! Thank you, Sally!
Walter
Walter is one of the friendliest and funniest people that you will ever meet. His charm and quick sense of humor will instantly capture your heart! (If you haven't seen the video of him folding a shirt on our Facebook page, we recommend that you check it out!)
Walter is a man of many talents. He plays tennis regularly through the BuddyUp Tennis program, he is an artist at We Care Arts, and he does hip-hop dancing at SmileAwhile Dance Studio. In addition, he loves attending his local church, Kettering Assembly of God, and participating in church functions with his friends. Those are just a few of his many activities!
Walter is very close with his family. Walter, his younger brother Aaron, and his nephew A.J. are all die-hard University of Michigan fans - you will often hear Walter shouting: "Go Blue!" (This takes incredible bravery, considering that Walter lives in Ohio, where Michigan fans are outnumbered about 100,000 to 1!)
When he's not rooting for Michigan, he's usually listening to his favorite radio station - 107.7 The Mix FM. Walter knows the name and recording artist of pretty much every song that you can think of. He has been a long-time listener of the station, and has even been on the radio a few times!
At Reeve's Tees, Walter does a great job helping us package t-shirts. His work ethic and attention to detail are incredible assets to our team! In addition to his work at Reeve's Tees, he also works at a local tennis club on the weekends... he's a busy man!
Even though he is often busy working, Walter would like all the ladies to know that he is still available :) !
Vocational Training at Belmont High School
Earlier this year, we brought Reeve's Tees to a local high school to incorporate some of the skills needed for folding and packaging our shirts into the Special Education Vocational Training Program.
This collaborative effort was arranged by Ms. Leslie Sells, Special Education Teacher, and Ms. Suman Mediratta, the Transition Coordinator for Dayton Public Schools.
Since t-shirts and packaging materials are easily portable, bringing Reeve's Tees into the classroom was an easy way to provide hands-on training for these students. Students learned the step-by-step process of folding and packaging shirts. Then, it was up to them to divide into teams, coordinate their efforts, and practice new skills to accomplish the job at hand. They learned a lot of new skills that they can use when they leave school and seek employment in the "real world." They all did a fantastic job, and as a result, we ended up with beautifully packaged shirts! It was a win-win!
After the successful outcome of this years work, we plan to continue this arrangement in the 2015-2016 school year. A special thanks to the students and the educators - Ms. Sells and Ms. Mediratta - for making this possible!
