Goodwill Industries of the Big Bend is now more than just a place to drop off useable discards and find merchandise bargains. The Tallahassee operation is now also in the car wash business.
Mike Smith has been running the Market Street car wash location for years under another ownership and he said the Goodwill affiliation means an expansion.
“Our car wash, Super-Suds, will employ 60 people,” he remarked during Wednesday’s ribbon-cutting. “This particular location will be employing 25 people.”
One of those people is Dwight Duke, a former state worker who was put in a wheelchair five years ago by a motorcycle accident.
“Goodwill has helped better my life with the opportunity of giving me a job and I’m very grateful and thankful for that,” Duke said.
Goodwill Industries of the Big Bend CEO Fred Shelfer explained this car wash and its companion on Capital Circle will also be job training facilities.
“Not only to give people job opportunities, but to show them the right way to come to work, dress right, ready to take instructions and do their job.”
Shelfer said base salary for these workers, many of whom might not have many other employment options, is $10 an hour plus tips.
