Third Annual Biggs Award

Bill McKay receives the third annual Biggs Award from Flowercart

By Lisa Hammett Vaughan, Coordinator, Flowercart’s Community Employment Services Program

We set up The Biggs Award in 2004, as an annual award to recognize an individual who is a fine example of the work skills taught and supported by Flowercart’s Community Employment Services.  The Biggs Award is give to a person who got their job with the help of Partners in Employment Outreach; who has demonstrated skills, work habits and attitudes which have had a positive effect on others; and who has earned a reputation with his or her supervisor and co-workers as an eager learner and hard worker who has met or exceeded her or his employer’s expectations.

The 2006 recipient of the Biggs Award is Bill McKay, who was nominated by his employer, Burnt Out Solutions. 

Bill came to Partners in Employment Outreach back in April of 1999 looking for a job.  He became employed with Flowercart as a contract worker at Michelin in June of 2000 during the time of an expansion at the plant, and he worked with us at the plant until the expansion ended in February of 2001.  Then in June of 2001 Bill began working as a Candle Production Worker at Burnt Out Solutions. 

Burnt Out Solutions is an environmentally friendly & socially conscious candle and soap manufacturer, based in New Minas.  The company strives to make a real & positive impact on our world by choosing biodegradable products which support North American agriculture, & by offering jobs to people who often encounter limited employment opportunities.

Bill started out with Burnt Out Solutions, cleaning and packaging candles.  In his 5 years with the company, Bill has been a steady employee, who is rarely absent from work.  He has always been willing to try new tasks and over the years has worked his way up in the business.  First he was completely trained in all aspects of producing candles from reading the recipes, making sure the temperatures are right, placing and centering wicks, and pouring, as well as doing quality checks.  Later he was trained in soap production.  Bill has gone through many changes since those early days of cleaning and packaging; he now produces all the body care products for Burnt Out Solutions.  He has taken on many different responsibilities; he is the Occupational Health and Safety officer for his co-workers and is often coming up with new ideas to make things better. His supervisor, Michelle Kulyk, says she is confident knowing that when she walks away from the factory, Bill will keep on working, accepting the responsibility of making sure that nobody blows the place up!

Bill has shown himself to be willing and eager to learn new things.  Michelle says she has seen Bill having to go outside of his comfort zone in many areas in their workplace, and though he has experienced some disappointments, more often he experiences success.  She says that Bill is determined to excel at whatever he tackles and he's not one to make excuses when things do not work out.  Facing his limitations head on, he is generally not deterred by them and adopts coping strategies to compensate.  Bill himself will admit that he can often be quite stubborn and argumentative, but that stubbornness also translates into Bill's great drive to keep working on his goals and to succeed. 

Outside of his job, Bill has many hobbies and interests about which he is very knowledgeable.  He keeps both his body and mind active, and prides himself in learning about, and working towards mastering, new things.