By By CHRIST PROKOS
Staff Writer
Aug. 6, 2009, could have been a devastating day for Bonny West. For most people, it would have been.
While chasing a dog off the front porch of her Chocowinity home, the 47-year-old waitress twisted her knee, severing her anterior cruciate ligament. At the time, West was unaware that her serious injury would turn out to be a life-altering blessing.
“How strange that that accident could have been the blessing that got me where I am now or where I’m going,” West said.
A little over a year later, West was miraculously back on her feet — figuratively and literally. She no longer waits tables at Lyle &Shirley’s Cafe in Aurora because she landed a paid internship at Priska LLC, a Washington company founded by Dr. Priscilla Denney. The N.C. Division of Vocational Rehabilitation was able to facilitate the internship process for West.
“Some friends told me about Vocational Rehabilitation, and so I went to them because financially my husband and I couldn’t afford it,” West recounted. “They helped me out with most of the cost, and through them, I met Dr. Denney.”
The goal of the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation is to advance employment opportunities for people with physical and mental disabilities through client partnerships and community leadership. With supplemental funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, DVR is able to offer on-the-job training and paid internships to its clients and business partners.
Employers are eligible for up to 100 percent of an employee’s wages during a predetermined on-the-job training period of up to six months. The client benefits by mastering the job skills necessary for permanent employment while the business partner is compensated for the time spent training a potential permanent employee.
The paid internship program allows clients to explore various fields of interest while building experience and exposure to relationships within a particular career.
Both programs have provided positive results for the clients and the business partners.
“We want to get the word out,” said Janet Loving, business relations representative with DVR’s office in Washington. “We want employers to have the knowledge of it and to take advantage of it. One thing I like to tell an employer is ‘You like to groom your staff,’ and this is a paid way to groom their staff to meet their business needs.”
For West, the four-month internship at Priska was a perfect match. The company markets Eco Daisy, an all-natural multipurpose cleaner.
“I like it here. I like working for Priska LLC,” West said. “When Janet (Loving) called me and set up the appointment, I went and I was nervous because I had been waiting tables. I went to school and have a degree for this, but had been out of the loop for so long. She mentioned something to me she had read in the newspaper about Priska, a new company. Well, immediately I was very interested in reading that article, and it just felt good. I liked the fact that (Eco Daisy) was all natural.”
Denney, the chemist who founded Priska in April 2009 and created Eco Daisy, knew the chemistry was right when it came to adding West to the mix. She credits Loving and Meredith Ellis with DVR with having the formula for a perfect solution.
“(DVR) tries to match up the right company with the right person to make sure it’s successful,” Denney said. “I met Bonny, and she had actually read an article on my company. So, it was just sort of a divine thing that happened.
“I really have been the beneficiary. Bonny is fantastic. You want to talk about someone who gives 200 percent and is as committed to this company as I am. That’s very, very hard to find. And in someone who would initially be a stranger, but then they would come in and they would take the company on as their own. That, to me, is priceless.”
Denney plans to offer West a permanent position once the internship concludes.