- Employee Spotlights
Employee Spotlight - James McDonald
Now that Daniel Chapman has retired, our longest-serving employee is James McDonald. Of course, Daniel literally only had one day of service on James - who we also call Mickey, or Chico.
Mickey’s done all sorts of things around our factory in his forty-six years of service to Blenko, but he started in Shipping in 1978, wrapping up our bulk wholesale orders in pine fluff, brown butcher paper, and boxing it up. These days, one of the critical, and thankless, things that Mickey does is tend to our workers – human and cat alike. Mickey’s got a quiet routine first thing in the morning: he gathers up the clean sports drink tub every morning and fills it up for our hot shop to stay quenched and cooled – and then, the endless and thankless task of cleaning up after our cats. (Someone’s got to do it, and we’re so thankful he does.)
Mickey’s a knowledgeable anchor in our cold shop now, where he and Mike Stratton work amiably side-by-side every day, and they put the level on our products, polish lips, marry stoppers, and keep the glass moving from the hot shop to shipping, and out the door to your house.
It’s the people that make Blenko, and it’s the people’s hands that make it handmade. All our glass is made from scratch in our Milton, West Virginia factory every day – all the way through from sand to hand. Sophisticated design, impeccable color, undeniable legacy!
