| By
Marfi Davis-News-staff writer PIGEON FORGE -
Dollywood had an early Christmas gift for Kellye Ivy on the first day of their Smoky
Mountain Christmas festival this year - a job.
Ivy, 21, has a mental disability called Down syndrome. Just a few years
ago, the chance of her landing a real job at the federal minimum wage or better was next
to none.
Her parents, Joyce and William Ivy, moved their three children from Oxford, Miss., to
Sevier County after Kellye came home with the news that Dollywood hired people like her.
In fact, Kellye Ivy spoke out loud and clear about her first day on the job clearing
tables at Aunt Granny’s Restaurant. "I love it. I love everything about
it," she said. Ivy added that she is looking forward to spending her earnings on
Christmas gifts for her parents and brothers.
Dollywood has employed supervised teams of mentally challenged adults
from the Douglas Cooperative in Sevier County for the past five years. When the agency
first approached Dollywood about hiring the mentally disabled adults, the park’s
managers were hesitant and concerned the new employees wouldn’t be able to keep up
with the workload during the busy summer season.
They had to ask us more than once said Dolly wood Employment Manager Amy
Cox.. The program started small with a few of Douglas Cooperative’s clients cleaning
tables and running the dishwasher in one of the Dollywood restaurants under close
supervision.
This past summer is supervised team of 18 mentally disabled adults from Douglas
Cooperative worked in a half dozen Dollywood restaurants. |
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"Her goal when we moved here was to work at
Dollywood, said her mother, "We were once told that Kellye would never
accomplish anything, never say anything intelligible."
Joyce Ivy, Speaking of her daughter, who is
working at Aunt Granny's restaurant after training at Dollywood
Kellye ivy was on that team, and by the end of the fall festival,
Dollywood managers knew she was capable enough to join the full time staff. Ivy is the
fifth crew member that Dollywood has added to its regular staff in the past five years.
She is a regular Dollywood employee now, said Cox.. There’s been no negative
reaction from Dollywood visitors or Ivy’s fellow employees. People do notice them and
comment, they appreciate that w e hire them, said Sandra Crumbley, team leader at Aunt
Granny’s Restaurant. |
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Ellen Long, spokeswoman for Dollywood, said
she has been gladdened by the experience. She and others have learned to focus on the
abilities rather than the disabilities of their coworkers. We have 2,000 employees who now
think it’s a normal working environment to have mentally handicapped adults working
alongside them. Many of them will go on to other jobs. We hope they’ll take that with
them, Long said. Douglas Cooperative clients are also working at serval other Sevier
county businesses, including a variety of fast food restaurants and hotels. The program at
Dollywood is the biggest and most successful, said Sharon Hauser, Director of the Sevier
County branch of Douglas Cooperative. The agency, which runs a sheltered workshop where
mentally disabled adults assemble advertising brochures, held a special reception last
week to thank Dollywood for providing work to Ivy and other mentally challenged adults. |
