(upbeat music) - Hello and welcome to, "The Journal," I'm Steve Kendall.

Serving Paulding, Van Wert, Putnam, Defiance, Henry and Williams counties, Limitless by PC Workshop, provides opportunities for people with disabilities.

We're joined by the executive director, Megan Sierra and Brooke Greear, the store manager.

We welcome you to, Journal today.

Thank you, both for taking the time to talk to us.

Megan, talk a little bit about what Limitless By PC Workshop is, kind of the history and what the idea was behind it.

And then we can talk about all the things that you folks do for everybody and all the counties we just talked about.

[Megan] Sure, well, thank you for having us today.

We're really excited to share the message of what we've been doing.

PC Workshop has been around since the 70s actually, as a nonprofit that has helped people with developmental disabilities.

It was actually started by a group of parents that wanted more for their kids.

They wanted more opportunities and a place for their kids to go for the day and to find out what work is like.

So since the 70s, we have been doing different contracts, which it's mostly has been a factory facility, and we've had different contracts with area businesses.

We worked through a subsidiary of Toyota to create their jack kits.

We assembled jack kits for a long time.

And COVID, when COVID hit, that was kind of the turn of events for us where we obviously could not be in house fulfilling those contracts with our clients, so we decided to kind of take a step back and we had staff that was fulfilling these orders, but then also we were in the houses with our clients trying to make sure that they were okay and getting their needs met while they were at home, so that's when we kind of took a step back and said, "What do we want?

What do we want for the future for PC Workshop?

And what do we want for our people?"

So COVID to a lot of people was very devastating, and we don't take that lightly.

But for us, it was this new opportunity where we could reinvent ourselves and we're operated by a board of directors.

And our board of directors said, "You know what?

Let's take this time to try something different."

And we decided to purchase a truckload of goods that were from Target.

- [Steve] Okay.

- And we said, we're just going to do this garage sale type thing to raise a little bit of money while we're closed down.

And the very first week we actually sold the entire truckload of items.

- [Steve] Wow.

- So we knew we were onto something.

It was just a little garage sale type thing in our warehouse.

And we purchased another truckload.

And same thing, people just came in droves.

Just through posting online and doing pickups, we were able to sell those goods very quickly.

So by the time that we were able to be fully staffed and back open, we started a store.

So that store has now turned into purchasing a new building, the opening of the New Limitless by PC Workshop.

And it's just kind of evolved from there.

- Yeah, now, the name itself kind of explain that, because when you say Limitless by PC Workshop, people think, "Well, it's all computers, it's all software."

But how did that name develop and what is it, what does it actually, what did it originally mean?

[Megan] So, PC Workshop originally meant Paulding County Workshop.

- [Steve] Ah, okay, gotcha, gotcha.

- Yes.

- [Steve] PC tends to make us think computers.

Okay, gotcha, gotcha.

- Absolutely, absolutely.

So that is why we wanted to rebrand, but still stay true to the roots of our original name.

Because in Paulding County, everybody knows PC Workshop and knows what we stand for.

- [Steve] Ah.

- But we added the Limitless because we felt like we really needed to reach out to even more counties and reach out to a bigger audience to spread the mission that it's not just about this county.

It's about how do we spread the word that life is limitless regardless of any of your abilities and anything that, that any place that you may come from, you still have the ability to make change in your own community regardless of who you are.

- Yeah, now, I know I mentioned at the beginning that obviously you serve a number of counties.

- [Megan] Yes.

- Are those services that aren't necessarily available in those other counties, or is this, you're working with other organizations similar to yours?

Or how does that exactly come together?

[Megan] So, there are several other agencies just like us.

We are a nonprofit.

- [Steve] Right.

- There are many other providers throughout all of the counties that provide services like we do, but not in this area that has the store as part of their programming.

So it is a kind of a unique thing to this area to have the services being provided, which are making sure that people are able to get out into the community, that they're able to go shopping for groceries, to get different places, to be a part of a greater community.

A lot of providers do that, but not in the way that we do.

- [Steve] Okay.

- So we have the store as part of learning how to work in the community, and we've really changed the way that we bring the community in now versus the factory setting.

We always used to be this factory set in the back of Paulding.

And now we're right in the village kind of in action, creating this change that we wanna see in Paulding.

[Steve] Yeah, because I think our normal way of thinking about this, or the traditional way is to say, oh, it's a workshop.

It's a factory setting, it's a whatever.

- [Megan] Yes.

- Yeah, Brook e, talk a little bit about the store, because obviously Megan mentioned you got a truckload of goods to start out.

What were those things that you first had in the store to begin with?

What were those goods?

- So, I believe the first truck came from Target, right?

I wasn't here when, when they started that, but it's anything from home appliances, home decor, clothing, shoes, it's your typical Target merchandise.

- [Steve] Okay.

- [Brooke] So, yeah, I don't know.

- [Megan] Everything that Target would have or a Sam's Club.

- [Steve] Okay.

- We brought in toys, everything is new.

It's exactly what you would see on the store floor, but it might be shelf poles if something changes in packaging or if they just have an overstock, an overabundance goods.

[Steve] Yeah, now, do any of the clients work in the store itself or not?

[Brooke] They do.

[Steve] Oh, okay.

[Brooke] Yeah, they do.

So I get assigned a few clients every single day that work in the store with me.

So they do anything from cleaning to stocking shelves, to running the register, greeting people.

It's pretty neat to see 'em interact with the community.

Yeah.

- Yeah, so it's a lot of interaction.

And obviously in a personal nature, which is always really good because even under our current settings, a lot of people don't deal face-to-face with people anymore, so this is actually a really exciting thing.

Well, when we come back, we're kind of at the end of this segment.

We can talk a little bit more about the services you provide for the clients and how you get the clients, because I know you're attracting 'em from all those different counties, all of them with different needs and levels of achievement and things of that nature, so we come back, we can talk more about that back.

Back in just a moment with Megan Sierra and Brooke Greear from Limitless by PC Workshop here on, "The Journal."

Thanks for staying with us on, "The Journal."

Our guests are Megan Sierra and Brooke Greear from Limitless by PC Workshop.

In that first segment we talked about the store, and that's sort of the face, the things that people see immediately when they think of the Workshop.

But obviously there's a lot more behind that, all of the things that go on behind it, so talk a little bit about the behind the scenes part of this operation.

[Megan] So we have several different departments that go into the store, and it's really exciting because we're able to have 65 clients working behind the scenes, not just in the store, but also doing things like unloading the truck and sorting the items.

So when we get these items, the nature of the trucks that we are purchasing, it is everything in one box.

You have no clue what you're getting.

- [Steve] Oh, wow.

- So, it is a surprise every time.

(Steve chuckling) We one time got an entire truckload of cat scratchers.

[Steve] Oh, okay.

- So, you have no idea.

It's the luck of the draw.

[Steve] Yeah.

[Megan] But our clients do everything from sorting these items.

They sort them into bins that have the prices marked, and then another set of clients, their part, their job is to price everything and make sure that everything is ready for the store, so making sure everything is clean, that the stickers and labels and everything look nice, and then pricing those items.

Then they get put into another location to actually get loaded onto the truck.

We also have a department that puts together all of the furniture and checks all of our electronics, so that we make sure everything is working when it gets to the store floor.

And that part is really neat because there's a lot of people that have never been exposed to tools or to anything of that nature, and they're actually now putting together full bookcases.

People that may not be able to speak or have the same abilities as you or I, they're making this beautiful furniture and putting together these massive shelves that we didn't know anybody that you know, that they could do until given the opportunity.

- [Steve] Sure.

- There's also an entire department that is clothing where clients are hanging clothes, they're having to size them all, figuring out which hanger to put them on, working on those fine motor skills to, we all know clipping the pants hangers is a big pain.

[Brooke] It is.

- [Steve] Oh yeah.

- So, it's really neat to see people develop those skills.

And then we also have an eBay department.

[Steve] Oh, really?

Okay.

- Yes.

[Steve] Online, okay.

[Megan] Yeah, we do.

They're shipping worldwide for anything that is more of a niche item, pop culture type items.

We've got, "Pac-Man" consoles that go on online, and lots of very interesting pop culture type things that we sell that way.

And clients package it.

They have to, they put in thank you cards to every package and then they learn how to ship that out.

- Yeah, now, Brooke, when you get, as Megan mentioned, a truckload full of whatever, do you go, how do you get the word about, Hey, we've got this, we've got a truckload of these to get rid of.

Is it social media, is it word of mouth?

Do people just kind of come in periodically to see what you have in inventory?

Or how does that work?

I mean, if you're trying to move 500 of something.

That you have to be kind of creative about that obviously.

[Brooke] We do have to get creative.

We use social media.

I use social media a lot to get the word out about what's in the store.

We do have regulars that come in every day excited to see what new stuff we have, because it is always changing, so it's fun for customers to pop in.

And it's what you see today is not what you saw yesterday.

But for the most part, social media, we make it fun.

We run deals and we tell 'em, "Hey, this is what we have.

Hurry up because they go fast."

[Steve] Yeah, now are there certain things that are always gonna move quickly that they're like go-to that people are always gonna purchase without any, as much as much effort required?

[Brooke] Yeah, yeah, there's definitely things.

So we don't have a ton of retail stores in Paulding County, so this has kind of become everybody's go-to, which is great for us.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- But yeah, just anything.

So, home decor is a huge one.

[Megan] Starbucks.

[Brooke] Starbucks cups, you know, the clothing.

There's really nowhere else to shop to get those items, so when we do get that kind of fun stuff in, it goes fast.

[Steve] Yeah, so, it's filling a number of niches as well.

- [Brooke] Yeah.

- Besides that, it's anything you've ever gotten though?

There's like, well, we're gonna have these for a while.

Is there any anything something's like, I mean, not to, you know, but there has to be something.

It's like, okay, we've got these and we've got them six months later and we still have them.

Anything like- [Brooke] We do.

[Steve] Yeah.

- I don't know off the top of my head, but it's so funny because the things that I'm like, "Oh, we're gonna have these forever.

Nobody's gonna buy these."

They do sell, everything sells.

Even if they're random weird things, they're gonna sell.

- [Steve] Yeah, well, I guess that's a good thing.

As you said, you're actually providing that for an area that may not have as many retail options as maybe people are accustomed to.

But it's interesting.

And I guess it just goes to show you that people will say, wow, why would anybody want that?

And then that moves off the shelf faster than other things you thought were gonna be no-brainer.

Well, won't be able to keep those.

Those will go so fast and yet.

- [Brooke] Yeah.

- When you go out to look now, is Target your only supplier or who else do you get material from or goods from?

- [Brooke] It's not, we get items from Sam's Club.

- [Steve] Okay.

- Is another one of our big ones.

Amazon, I'm trying to think of some other stores.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- [Megan] We've done Wayfair.

- [Steve] Oh, okay.

- Abbyson Furniture.

- [Brooke] Abbyson Furniture, that's a big one.

- [Megan] We've done like some Walmart.

We've done even local, like we've done some local type things.

We have a wonderful company called, Go Maddy Go, that does freeze dried candy.

And we try to partner with people that have a mission similar to ours.

That way we really can get the word out.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- And it's just been a very, it's honestly, we've tried anything and everything and we want to make it very exciting.

Every time that you come in, you have no idea.

It's always a surprise.

And that's the part where you have to purchase it because it might not be here next time.

It probably won't be.

- [Brooke] It won't be so - Well when we come back, I'd like to talk a little more about how you've set up those partnerships and how you get people to come on board, the organizations, the businesses.

So, we can talk about that.

Because there might be somebody else says, oh well we can, you know, maybe you'll get some new clients in the business side of it as well.

- [Megan] Yeah.

- [Brooke] Yeah.

- Okay good, we'll be back in just a moment.

We're talking with the folks from Limitless by PC Workshop, Brooke Greear and Megan Sierra are back in just a moment here on, "The Journal."

You're with us here on, "The Journal," our guests are Megan Sierra and Brooke Greear from Limitless by PC Workshop in Paulding County.

Last segment, we talked a little about the business relationships you have.

How do you go out and get those partnerships?

Do people come to you, I assume in some cases, but you obviously have to go out and prospect, I'm assuming, to get other people involved.

Because you talked about some of the companies, but there's a lot of groups out there that might want to get involved.

- [Megan] Yeah, so we have kind of just done a word of mouth.

It's really how we've gotten the people that we have gotten.

The business relationships that we have.

We have some wonderful folks that are kind of a third party who have helped us with the type of trucks that we get in.

But in terms of the vendors, we're always actively looking for other workshops that are trying to kind of reinvent themselves or that maybe they've been creating these products that we're not aware of.

So, we would love for anybody to reach out to us.

We've got our website, which is pcworkshop.org, that people can contact us that way to, if there's certain products that they're making or other workshops, we'd love to hear from them.

- Yeah, okay, good good.

And I know that we've talked about a lot on the retail side of this operation, but obviously there are a lot of other service, a lot of other things that your clients do that we haven't about some of the classes and things like that.

So talk a little about that as well, because obviously that's at the core of what you're trying to accomplish as well.

- Yes, so we provide two different services within our organization, and these are just kind of the jargon words.

It's adult day services.

- [Steve] Okay.

- And then vocational habilitation.

- [Steve] All right.

- So the difference between those two is basically that adult day services are life skill development, getting people out into the community, exposing people to a greater thing.

And we have different ways of doing those things.

The vocational habilitation service is what the store is.

- [Steve] Ah, okay.

- And we also have a multitude of different classes that assist people with being able to work in the store.

So, we do budget classes.

We have like even exercise classes where we go health and fitness, there's karate, everybody is doing karate chops here.

It's just crazy.

(Steve and Brooke laughing) Lots of other things.

We're going out and learning how to order off of a menu, learning about getting your change back, things like that.

We also have a movie class.

- [Steve] Okay.

- That we have group of people who created a script.

They started creating their own characters, superheroes, where we've actually made a couple movies now.

A Christmas movie and a movie called, "The Limitless League."

- [Steve] Oh, okay.

- That have been really well received locally, but also are on YouTube as well, on our YouTube channel.

So, it's just really neat.

We're always trying to push the envelope on the things that our clients are telling us that they want to do.

- [Brooke] That they do what to do, yeah.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- And it's just about making those things happen.

- Yeah, now, and I know we've talked about this, the clients that you have, what are some of the range of things that they, the challenges they have, the opportunities.

What are your clients typically the things that they come in and say they need to improve about this or they need these kind of life skills.

What's the range of things that you deal with in that situation?

- [Megan] Everything.

- [Steve] Everything, okay.

- It is everything that you have heard of we have been working with.

There are a lot of clients who, you know, there seems to be kind of a gap between getting out of school and then figuring out what that next step is.

- [Steve] Ah, okay.

- So especially for folks that may have different abilities, there might not be the perfect scenario for them right outta school.

So what we're trying to do is to capture the audience a little bit earlier and make sure that the schools are aware that we exist.

And that if they are in school and if it's a good fit, they could potentially come to us for half a day or a full day while they're in school to get some work training and then we can help them figure out what those next steps might be.

Yeah, so that's kind of how it works, is we're trying to get into the schools and then people come to us from all different backgrounds where they might help with just learning basic skills, like looking people in the eye, being able to shake somebody's hand, being able to conversate appropriately.

Just the soft skill development that a lot of people are just, they lack the confidence in.

- [Steve] Yeah, and is there an age range?

I mean, is there, what range do you span?

Everything basically or?

- [Megan] Well, 14 and up.

- [Steve] 14 and up, okay.

All right, yeah.

When you go out in the community and you're looking to partner, obviously you're dealing with Paulding County, but you're going to all these other counties.

What's the message that you use to convince people to say, "Hey, this is a good thing you need to be a part of."

But what's the big selling point that you can offer them and say, "Here's why you need to be involved with the Limitless by PC Workshop?"

- [Megan] I think the biggest thing is we are trying to listen really to what our clients are asking for.

And we're flipping the script because I think for so long the attitude, at least with us here, has been, okay, please come help us to provide these services.

We want these contracts with you when we were a factory, we wanted those contracts because we're trying to help the clients and that could not be further from what the mission truly is because the mission really is we are all capable of creating change.

We are all able to do something with purpose.

And now the clients are actually helping our customers.

They're helping the community, they're helping other businesses because on a Saturday morning, this is the place to be.

On a Wednesday afternoon, this is the place to be at.

It's just the, this is the happening spot and it's really cool to see people walk in and know Jesse by name or know Bob and know our clients by name.

- [Steve] Sure.

- Because of the awesome things that they're doing here.

- [Steve] Yeah, and you make a good point because traditionally we think of, oh, it's an, and as you said, almost like a factory or industrial setting.

But this actually is, provides so much more range in terms of what skills people can learn and how to interact as opposed to, not there's anything wrong with assembling things, but the reality is there's more to life than just doing that over and over and over again.

When you first started to sort of make that transition, you talked about COVID and everything.

Was there any resistance from the people that had been sort of traditionally part of this board going, "No, no, that's, what do you mean we're gonna do that."

(Brooke chuckling) Was there resistance at that point?

Because anytime you try to change something, people are like, "Ah, let's think about that."

So how difficult was that to accomplish and the store and everything?

Because that had to be like, "Wow, what's that about?"

- [Megan] Yes, yeah, yeah, I laugh.

It's yes now.

- [Steve] Yeah, yeah.

- Now people don't say that because it's turned out so well.

But yes, I think with change, every step of the way is difficult.

- [Brooke] Yeah.

- And especially because we have been around since the 70s.

We have been doing the same things.

And I think truly if COVID would not have happened, we wouldn't have changed.

No, we wouldn't have because we wouldn't have had the opportunity to.

So I think, yes, it was difficult, but we do have an amazing board who they said, "Hey, Let's do it, let's figure it out."

And the numbers didn't lie.

It was people in Paulding were searching for something with more meaning.

And our clients, it's funny because in the beginning, yes, they missed doing the same thing every day.

- [Steve] Sure, yeah.

- They liked that because that's what they had known.

Some of them for 20 or 30 years.

- [Steve] Right, right.

- But now it's opened up, nobody wants go back.

- [Steve] Right, right.

Now, Brooke, I'm gonna give you the last word here.

So, what is the item I should come in today and get at the store?

What's the hot ticket right now?

- [Brooke] We're not open today, but Friday.

- [Steve] Okay, the next time.

Okay, Friday, yeah.

- [Brooke] Friday.

- [Steve] Because the hours are up there, yeah.

- [Brooke] Yes, Friday.

- [Megan] Yes.

- [Steve] So what if I wanted, what should I be in line for when you open next?

- [Brooke] Oh my gosh, we have so much good stuff.

- [Steve] Okay.

- We just got a Sam's Club truck, so we've got like really awesome clothes and Ugg boots.

I don't know if you're an Ugg fan, but we got some Ugg boots.

- [Steve] Okay.

- Those will go crazy.

But yeah, we've got really good stuff coming this weekend.

- [Steve] Okay, cool.

- So, it will be worth a trip for sure.

- [Steve] Yeah, so people should make sure they get there.

Well, thank you so much.

I mean we've learned a lot and it sounds like a really great operation you have going there and really giving back to the community and really everybody gets to contribute in a way that makes it a positive experience.

That's really good.

- So we thank you for all the work you do there and all of that as well.

So, thank you so much.

You can check us out at wbgu.org.

You can see us every Thursday night at eight o'clock at WBGU-PBS.

We will see you again next time on, "The Journal."

Goodnight and good luck.

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