WPL Partners with Nonprofit to Develop Staff

Physical challenges have never gotten in the way of one White Plains Linen (WPL) employee who has combined hard work and dedication to build his career, according to a news release from the company, based in Peekskill, NY.

Henry Contreras Torres works full time as a floor man at WPL. Working in the garment department, he is responsible for affixing appropriate barcode tags to garments that White Plains Linen washes and delivers to customers. Torres usually operates two heat presses at a time despite having only one arm.

Torres has become a valuable and hard-working employee at White Plains Linen, but he may have never had the opportunity if not for the Keon Center’s Pathways to Employment Services program, which connects interested businesses with students at the Keon Center. The Keon Center, also located in Peekskill, NY, is a nonprofit agency that has been serving the developmentally disabled since 1954. They do so by providing comprehensive and vocational life skills training in a supportive environment, with a group of dedicated staff.

“I am very proud of the partnership that we have with the Keon Center,” said White Plains Linen CEO Bruce Botchman. “It has been my experience that their clients are dedicated and hardworking, and are just looking for someone to give them a chance to show it. That has certainly been the case with Henry.”

The relationship expands beyond Torres’ employment. WPL also sponsored the Keon Center’s annual golf outing last month, and supplied linens and napkins for the center’s holiday party. To read the full release, click here.