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Local: Heroes at the neighborhood Wal-Mart

Jan 8th, 2009
by Billy Dennis.

UPDATED: This post was originally pushed on August 22, 2008. I’m bumping it up because the agenda for Tuesday’s Peoria City Council meeting shows Kathleen is getting a proclamation in her honor.

This is so cool.

This month’s issue of Wal-Mart World magazine has two people I know on the cover: Kathleen Close and Tommy Smith. Both are long-time employees of Store 1323 (that’s the Wal-Mart on North University in Peoria).

Co-workers nominated Kathleen for the Sam Walton Hero Award because she spearheaded the effort to get Tommy the help he needed to get away from people who were taking advantage of him. Tommy is developmentally disabled. He is a valued employee at Wal-Mart, but needed help escaping the situation.

I worked with both Kathleen and Tommy when I was an associate there more years ago than I care to count. Both of them are great people and a pleasure to work with. It does not surprise me that Kathleen stepped up and took responsibility for helping out Tommy.

Kudos to both.

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5 Comments

  1. Sweetnote says:
    August 22, 2008 at 2:16 pm

    Now THAT is newsworthy and Super cool! Congrats to them both!

  2. EP_Blondie says:
    August 22, 2008 at 2:34 pm

    Seriously? You worked at Wal-Mart? I’m guessing your sharp wit precluded you from being a greeter…

  3. Billy Dennis says:
    August 22, 2008 at 2:41 pm

    And I’m guessing your anonymity precludes you from not being a jerk. Tell me, what happened to you in your life that you think it’s OK to denegrate people beause they have a JOB you consider beneath you? Most of the Wal-Mart entrance and exit greaters are people who should be retired, but can’t afford it or simply people who like other people. Sometimes they are developmentally challenged, like Tommy. You know, people who work very hard to earn their own money, when they could easilly just sit back and collect social security checks.

  4. Conrad Stinnett says:
    August 22, 2008 at 6:06 pm

    I personally think Wal-Mart has become a pretty slimey organzation that is detrimental to the communities it does business in. Having said that, I do appreciate the many hard-working people who toil there. My congrats to Kathleeen and Tommy.

  5. ep blondie says:
    August 25, 2008 at 12:30 am

    Not putting down Wal-Mart. Shocked someone would give you a job in which you work with the public.