National Industries for the Blind (NIB) Selects New York City Industries for the Blind (NYCIB) for a 2005 Employment Growth Award

Summary:
National Industries for the Blind (NIB) Selects New York City Industries for the Blind (NYCIB) for a 2005 Employment Growth Award, as NYCIB Celebrates Its 10th Anniversary, March 23, 2006

Business Wire Monday, March 20, 2006
BROOKLYN, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 17, 2006--New York City Industries for the Blind (NYCIB) proudly and joyfully celebrates its tenth year of existence next Thursday, March 23rd, with additional celebratory events scheduled on March 21 and March 22. And a highlight of its 10th Anniversary Celebration on March 23rd, will be accepting a 2005 Employment Growth Award from National Industries for the Blind (NIB), which works to help its 80 affiliated not-for-profit affiliates put more blind Americans to work.

The only facility to focus on putting blind and visually-impaired people to work in the New York City metropolitan area, NYCIB is very happy that since its beginning in 1996, it has managed to prosper -- not from government grants but from its dedication to providing its customers with the best-possible products and services. As founder, president and CEO, Rick Bland, puts it, "When every blind New Yorker who wants a job, has one, I'll retire. Receiving NIB's Employment Growth Award means a great deal to me and all of our employees. It recognizes that we are serving a very critical need in the community."

From the beginning, when Bland saw his first mission as creating a not-for-profit company dedicated to giving blind and visually-impaired New Yorkers on-site employment opportunities, NYCIB has quadrupled the number of people working in the new facility. Since over 70% of all working-age blind people can't find jobs, the celebration is more than a tribute to Bland and NYCIB, it's a tribute to the determination of his people to show that they can do things most people think they can't do, that they don't want to be forever on the public dole, and that above all, they want the dignity of supporting themselves and their families through their own efforts.

Alexandria,VA-based National Industries for the Blind provides resources and support to its affiliated non-profit agencies. Mr. Jim Gibbons, president and CEO of NIB said, "By growing and retaining employment opportunities, NYCIB is assisting people who are blind in obtaining and maintaining independence and an improved quality of life -- things every American strives to achieve."

Now, with a 140,000 square-foot facility in Brooklyn, NYCIB has people doing everything from making mops, brooms and brushes, to running a lettershop, to sorting foreign postal bags for the USPS, to sewing U.S. military uniforms. Maybe Hellen Keller said it all when she said, "The curse of the blind is not blindness, but idleness." As Rick Bland put it, "There are no idle blind people at NYCIB. Everybody works very hard to provide the top quality products and services which our customers have come to expect."

Contacts:
The Lund Group, Inc.
Mike Bruneau/Bea Lund
203-972-8501
Fax: 203-972-8569
lundgroup@aol.com
or
New York City Industries for the Blind
718-854-7300
Fax: 718-854-2700
www.nycib.org

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