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6.27.08 | Expanded capacity leads to boundless opportunities for Butte’s BSW, Inc.
When the 1920s building housing BSW Inc’s sewing and woodworking facilities faced a serious structural challenge, Executive Director, John Pahut, worried about the future of his organization. BSW offers wage-earning vocational activities for developmentally disabled individuals in the Butte area. The organization provides training and support to these individuals so they can participate in and contribute to society.
BSW has three military contracts " making a military map case for the Marines, a Class B neck tag for women in the Air Force, and a cold weather boot liner for the Army. On the second floor of their building, which housed the processing plant and woodworking department, a thin layer of concrete had been poured. Within the last year, the floor was showing signs of weakening and when a 2 x 4 was dropped it broke through.
"We consulted with an engineer to get up to code. To do it we would have to completely re-arrange our facility," said Pahut. "The costs were going to be outrageous to stay in our building." BSW also has two other buildings in Butte, a facility housing their shredding and mailing contracts, as well as packaging golf tees for local courses and other marketing materials. This facility employs lower functioning consumers, many in wheel chairs. In addition, BSW had a social activity center for their senior citizen consumers.
With the future of the manufacturing facility hanging in the balance, Pahut and his staff, with the blessing of the Board of Directors, started thinking about the possibility of consolidation. At about the same time, Thompson Distributing’s 30,000-square-foot warehouse came on the market. The ample space intended for beer distribution proved to be the perfect location to bring all of BSW’s resources and consumers together under one roof.
Consolidation would open the door for the organization to expand its capacity, not simply in square footage but also by broadening opportunities for its consumers. In the new facility, consumers who were involved in the shredding, mailing and marketing activities would now be able to easily transition into the manufacturing facility, which would be a couple yards away rather than city blocks. "We can get people involved in vocational work that before would have required transportation across town," said Pahut.
Granting more access would mean BSW could increase their contracts and offer more wage-earning activities to individuals who previously would not have been able to participate.
Pahut sent a fundraising letter to local businesses, many of which also had contracts with BSW. "We manufactured lathe and stakes for a number of contracts in our woodworking facility, including Montana Resources," said Pahut. When Tad Dale, Vice President of Human Resources at Montana Resources, heard about their need he called BSW and directed Pahut to the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation website. Dale guided him to the online application process.
"Tad was pretty instrumental in helping us get the grant," said Pahut. As another positive component of consolidation, BSW would have the space to recycle their paper shredding and woodworking waste into wood pellets, which in turn would provide another source of income to the organization’s consumers. "We requested funding for the wood pellet process specifically in our grant and the Washington Foundation came through," said Pahut.
The Foundation grant will also go toward unexpected costs in the capital improvement to the new facility to ensure that consolidation will be successful. As the project becomes more of a reality, Pahut and his staff are realizing just how much potential the new facility has. "We’re looking at working with the University of Montana to establish a computer lab in one of the rooms that will pilot some of the adaptive equipment for computers for those who are hearing impaired, or to help with hand eye coordination," said Pahut.
"The ability to do all of this is going to open up the doors and give more vocational and work opportunities to all of our consumers, especially those who’ve never had the opportunity to earn a wage and save money," said Pahut. "They will be able to save for a vacation or buy Christmas presents for their family. This does wonders in increasing self-esteem, disposition, and community involvement. It’s going to make a big difference in their lives."
