Published: July 20, 2009 02:16 pm      

Jobs are in the cards

Stimulus package summer work turns into full-time employment at Troll and Toad

Special to The Times-Tribune

A temporary summer job that Donald Brock got through the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program Inc.’s (EKCEP) Let’s Go 2 Work initiative has turned into a permanent job doing something he loves.

Let’s Go 2 Work helped 22-year-old Donald get a six-week summer job at the Troll and Toad store, sorting through the elves, ogres and trolls featured on the “Magic The Gathering” and other game cards sold there. Troll and Toad management liked Donald’s work ethic so much they offered him a full-time position after his summer job ended.

“I love it here,” Donald said.

Let’s Go 2 Work puts 16- to 24-year-olds to work in six-week summer jobs at local businesses and organizations, using American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to pay their salaries. Donald heard about the program from a friend and contacted a Let’s Go 2 Work career advisor at KCEOC Community Action, which provides the program in Knox County.

Donald was enrolled, interviewed about his interests and career goals, and placed at Troll and Toad.

Donald said summer jobs can be difficult for young people to find in Knox County, so he was glad when Let’s Go 2 Work was able to get him a place to work.

“I thought it would be a chance to get my foot in the door somewhere,” Donald said.

He made the most of the opportunity, working hard and trying to make a good impression. He succeeded, and now has an enjoyable job to support himself while he pursues a college degree.

Donald is the first of five Let’s Go 2 Work participants working at Troll and Toad who will be hired full-time when their Let’s Go 2 Work placements end.

 Troll and Toad started in 1994 in owner John Huston’s garage in Keavy. At the beginning, Huston sold single “Magic the Gathering” cards through the mail. 

The company has snowballed since then and become a thriving business that ships about 500 orders from its online store every day, according to Assistant General Manager Billie Humphrey.  In 2007, Troll and Toad moved into a large warehouse in Barbourville that houses its massive inventory of role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons, collectable card games, and other hobby games.

Humphrey said the Let’s Go 2 Work workers have been a “huge help” to the business this summer.

“You get things done that you normally wouldn’t have time to do,” she said.

The placements also serve as a trial period that allows Troll and Toad to get to know prospective employees and decide which ones they will eventually hire, according to Humphrey.

By the time the company has decided who to hire, the workers already know how to do their jobs, Humphrey said. 

Humphrey feels Let’s Go 2 Work helps both the company and the young people, and helps form relationships between the business and potential workers it might have overlooked otherwise.

“The ones that I got, they’ve really tried to get a job before. They’ve worked hard but just had some bum luck. But they’re here now and have become part of our family,” Humphrey said smiling.

Let’s Go 2 Work is providing 3,000 summer jobs for youth in EKCEP’s 23-county area this summer. The initiative will infuse about $6 million in economic stimulus money into the eastern Kentucky economy. In Knox County, the program is providing about 200 jobs representing $390,000 in wages.

For more information, visit the Web site at letsgo2work.org.