There’s this great moment at every graduation of a Training & Employment program at the DC Career Campus when, in a short video, the students tell why, “I AM Goodwill.” By the end of the video friends, family, and Goodwill staff are practically jumping to their feet to applaud the accomplishments of the soon-to-be graduates. It’s a bit overwhelming (in the best way possible) and entirely uplifting.

Goodwill’s mission resonates a bit differently for every one who know the organization. For me, it’s personal.

You see, dear readers, the DCGF has a disability. I know, right? Get out! “But I’d never guess that,” you say. “I’ve met her. She doesn’t seem like she has a disability,” you think to yourself. But that, dear readers, is sort of the point. I have bi-polar disorder - a type of psychiatric disability - and it just goes to show you that looks can be deceiving when it comes to determining who is a person with a disability.

For years I struggled to figure out what was “wrong” with me. In college I received a diagnosis of depression (which can sometimes be a short term issue), admitted to the psychiatric ward on campus for nearly a week, and sent back home to live with my parents. Yep, I was a college drop-out for a time. I finally graduated, but not after a series of panic attacks sent me back home at the very end of my last semester. I didn’t even attend graduation.

The next two years were a blur of short-term jobs (ten in one year alone!), multiple anti-depressents (none of which really seemed to work), and the feeling that I’d never amount to anything. In short, I was a complete mess, but felt I had no options for taking control of my life.

Then, in graduate school I participated in clinical trial for bi-polar disorder, for which I eventually received a diagnosis. It was like being given the chance to take in a huge gulp of air after years of shallow breathing. I had my life back.

As I finished the coursework at graduate school, moved to DC, held a series of dead-end jobs, and thought that moving back to the Midwest might be my only option, I began volunteering at Goodwill.

The rest, as they say, is history. I applied for a job in the development department, then assumed my current position in the marketing division. I work every day with dedicated people who are sensitive to the needs of employees with disabilities, which is a tremendous relief for someone who needs an actual “mental health day” every now and again.

At Goodwill, there are so many stories like mine. Charlie and Wilbert are maybe the best known examples, simply because their faces adorn the sides of our trucks and our marketing van. That’s Charlie on the back of the truck and standing next to it; Wilbert’s on the side.

Charlie came to Goodwill after a devastating accident left him in a wheelchair and unable to do his old job, roofing. He’s been here almost 11 years now, moving from simple tasks such as sorting and assemblage in the production area to his current position: managing our donor database using a very sophisticated computer software program. Oh, and as you can tell, he doesn’t need that wheelchair anymore, either.

If you meet him, be sure to ask him about getting his license back this year. You see, Charlie and I share cubicle space, so I happen to know how much that means to him. And he’s a good driver, too!

Wilbert became a paraplegic after a robber shot him on his way home from the grocery one night. Like Charlie, he could no longer work his previous job, operating a forklift. He came to Goodwill, received computer training, and now performs the essential task of tracking our retail sales. If I didn’t receive his Excel spreadsheets in my inbox on a weekly basis, I don’t know what I’d do!

Wilbert has this great “commercial” on our in-store radio system where he talks about how much his life improved after he started working here. “Now I don’t recommend you go out and get shot,” he chuckles over the speaker system, and I smile every time I hear that. It takes a lot of strength to look back on an experience like that and laugh.

Why am I telling you this? There’s nothing fashionable about all this serious talk, right? Well, dear readers, October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month.

And now you are aware. It’s that simple.

And if you’re in the DC area at any point during the rest of October, and you stop by a Goodwill store, you can participate in our “Share a Smile” campaign by purchasing a Smiling G for just a buck and support the work and the people of Goodwill. Charlie and Wilbert and I say thanks in advance. We are ALL Goodwill.