2013 NAID Audit

Our annual audit for ceritication from the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) is in an hour. We have been AAA Certified Members for 3 years, but I still get nervous when it is time for an audit. I hope we have all of our ducks in a row. This is a strenuous process where the auditor reviews lots of documents and test our truck to make sure we are meeting the top industry standards and providing the most secure and professional service for our valuable customers. Wish us luck!!!

For more information visit www.naidonline.org.

2013 Challenging Autism Luncheon for The Avondale House

We had a great time at the Avondale House's annual luncheon. For the past several years The Shred Guy has been a sponsor of The Avondale House. This is a school in Houston for people ages 3+ (The oldest student right now is 38.) that are on the autism spectrum. They have a year-round school program, a day-habilitation program, and 3 residential group homes. Their program is phenomenal.

 

Hearing the teachers share today touched my heart and made me miss being a special education teacher. I am glad there are places out there that allow these kids to learn in ways that will help prepare them for day-to-day life, rather than prepare them to take a standardized test. I loved being a public school teacher, and I felt like our school district had a great program for students on the autism spectrum. However, the state and federal testing requirements do not properly measure any standard of learning for many of the special education students. Some of those students are still working on daily living skills and basic educational skills, even into 5th grade, middle school, and often high school. Many of those students are still required to take a test that is challenging for even their "regular" education peers, meaning it is like looking at something in a foreign language to them. I don't know how anyone can look at those situations and consider that test any type of measure of success for those students. To truly measure their success would to be to design an assessment of the individualized goals that are researched and established for each particualr child. That is what they work on every day, so that is how you should measure their educational growth.

 

Now I am off my soapbox. :)Thank you Avondale House for a wonderful luncheon at the Houston Junior League with inspiring presentations by the teachers that help these students every day.

 

For more information about The Avondale House, visit their website, www.avondalehouse.org. If you are interested, they can always use volunteers or monetary donations that go toward school supplies and community based instruction lessons and field trips for the students.

Go Green Day-April 13th

Monday, April 22nd is Earth Day. The Shred Guy helps do our part every day by recycling all of the paper we shred. We recycled approximately tons of paper last year. To help raise awareness for recycling we are partnering with The Gleannloch Farms Women's Club and HOA to be part of the annual "Go Green Gleannloch" project.

The event will be held April 13th from 9 am - 12 pm at the Rec Center on Gleannloch Forest Drive. We will be shredding on-site. Bring any documents you want to securely dispose of. The paper will be shredded before your eyes and all shredded paper will be recycled.

This event will be fun for the whole family with food, various children's activities, booths with eco-friendly information and fantastic raffle prizes. The Women's Club will be selling trees to re-plant and re-green some of those that were lost during the drought of two years ago.

They are still accepting event sponsors and donations for this community event. To learn how you can get involved e-mail gfwomensclub@gmail.com or President and Event Committee Chair, Carol Conner, at connfam3@aol.com.

Lakewood UMC Shred Day Success

The shred day we had at Lakewood United Methodist Church was a success. We were not prepared for the turnout and had to leave about 1/2 way thorugh to go empty our truck to make room for more paper. Luckily, our friends at Federal International were kind enough to stay open a little late for us. We shredded and recycled about 5,500 lbs of paper. That is a great savings to the environment. We had wonderful weather for the event, too!

Please Welcome Our Newest Employee

We were excited to welcome our newest team member this morning. Stan Anderson had his first day with The Shred Guy today. He is our new Secure Destruction Specialist. He will be our new driver/shredding expert. Stan has experience as a truck driver and lots of experience in the customer service industry. We are thrilled to have him as part of our team. If you see him around, please welcome him with a smile.