First, we introduce Koffi Gbedjeha, our 2023 Peter J. Salmon Award Nominee, whose story of resilience and unwavering commitment shines as a beacon within our organization. Additionally, we honor Megan Mackie, who has been named our 2023 Associate of the Year. Megan’s boundless energy and passion have breathed new life into our social and recreational programs, making them a vibrant hub of excitement for all participants. Join us as we celebrate Koffi and Megan, who exemplify the true spirit of dedication and excellence at Outlook Enrichment.
Eric Stueckrath:
Our outlook core values are collaboration, growth, respect, and trust. And while Koffi exemplifies all of them, respect comes to mind first because of his way of respecting others and the fact that he is so respected for the job that he does.
Koffi Gbedjeha:
When I was at the hospital UNMC for my surgery, the doctor told me about Outlook Nebraska and they have a company here who hires people who have a vision condition.
Johnny Botsford:
Koffi is probably the nicest guy that I’ve ever met in my life, and he’s one of the hardest workers that I’ve ever met. He comes in every day is working hard and having fun doing it.
Koffi Gbedjeha:
I remember one of my teachers when I was little, a civil engineer, he always said not to be limited, to have that yourself to any situation you are facing.
Johnny Botsford:
He’s always trying to learn new things and he doesn’t let his vision hold them back so he’s one of those guys that you can show something to you one time and on the second time, he’s the one doing it so he’s a great worker.
Michelle Poteet:
He’s very versatile. Absolutely. He’s very versatile. Being able to move him around is very useful and very refreshing to me as the facilitator.
Eric Stueckrath:
My favorite quality about Koffi is his calming nature. He just seems to bring this confidence and quiet but yet he always seems to just get things done and support his team really well.
Johnny Botsford:
He just understands how machines work, he understands what we’re doing here, and he understands the job that needs to get done. He takes care of it. We’re very lucky to have Koffi as part of our team. He helps make everything go smoothly every day.
Eric Stueckrath:
Outlook Enrichment continues to evolve, and Megan brings excitement, she brings energy and she just helps people have a lot of fun within our programs.
Megan Mackie:
Today we are at Tree Rush Adventures, and we are tackling the tree tops. Everybody’s up there doing things that I can’t even imagine doing, tumbling across bridges, staircases, zip lines, you name it, they’re trying it.
Seth Kadlec:
You go through different courses, such as trees, balance beams. My favorite part was the zip lining.
Michael Perdunn:
I can only imagine her job is incredibly difficult because you have kind of have a one-for-one match on everything. Right, so you’ve got to have that right balance of volunteers that you can rely on in order to make events like this happen, otherwise somebody is sitting on the sideline and can’t participate.
Seth Kadlec:
I like the fact about how they get us involved with Outlook.
Jon Kadlec:
And not just Outlook but what else do they just get you involved with?
Seth Kadlec:
With the community. I think she does a really good job.
Eric Stueckrath:
Megan is a very independent person, and I think the social and recreational programs that she leads helps others to become independent out and about in our community.
Michael Perdunn:
I’ve been volunteering with Outlook for about three years now, and in that time, I’ve just seen more and more people come to events. I think that’s a direct result from Megan just having that energy from all of the events, continuing to find great exciting things to be a part of that make people want to come out and participate both from the volunteer side and from the participant side.
Megan Mackie:
Getting to see people surprise themselves, it’s one thing for us to surprise other people but I like when somebody tries something new, like we’re doing today, that they wouldn’t never tried and they end up loving it and they want to continue doing it. To see them be proud of themselves makes me proud of my job.
