Anthony Zoccola – Hard Work + Great Attitude Pay off at the Valley Athletic Club

morningside
Anthony puts some muscle into cleaning the indoor slide at the Valley Athletic Club.
0 Shares

 

morningside
Armed with gloves, towels and cleaning spray, Anthony Zoccola gets to work sanitizing the Valley’s pool hand rails.

Armed with a stopwatch, timer and checklist, Anthony Zoccola puts in long days at the Valley Athletic Club in Tumwater. You’ll find the very popular 30-year-old at the fitness club half-days, four days a week. “Anthony never loses steam,” said Jane Mohr, Anthony’s coach from Morningside.

Morningside helps individuals with disabilities find employment. Over nine years ago, the Valley and Morningside collaborated to place Anthony in a work environment that complements his love of fitness and swimming. The Valley is Anthony’s employer and pays his wages and Morningside provides site support. Morningside employs Jane as an employment consultant or coach, and Anthony is one of her clients. She checks in with Anthony at the Valley at least once a week.

“Anthony’s job is to clean several areas of the facility. He has a checklist with an image for each task, a timer and stopwatch. The timer and stopwatch remind him to move from section to section, and he checks off each task on his list as he completes it. He sanitizes treadmills and bikes. He cleans the men’s locker room. He is a pool assistant on Tuesday and Thursday. At the pool he sanitizes the hand rails, polishes the big slide and cleans floor drains,” said Jane. His manager in each section checks his work and adds a smiley face next to the task he’s completed to approve his work.

Over the years, Jane has worked very closely with Anthony’s managers at the Valley—Candice and Katie—to fine-tune Anthony’s work process and task list so that it is both efficient and manageable. The result is a very self-directed employee using a system that encourages both task completion and accountability. This system plays on Anthony’s strengths, one that took a while to develop, but both Jane and Anthony’s managers knew would pay off over time. Anthony is doing work that he enjoys and his hard work contributes to the Valley’s success.

morningside
Anthony Zoccola (right) meets with Jane Mohr and Candice Hampton weekly.

“The Valley really is a role model for supported employment. They are incredible,” said Jane. “We receive regular updates from Anthony’s managers. They understand that he likes knowing what his goals are and that he thrives when they give him praise and positive feedback. They call me anytime we need to make a change in Anthony’s schedule or if there is an issue that needs to be addressed.”

Jane said that while the Valley deserves a lot of credit for Anthony’s employment success, the other contributing factor is Anthony’s parents. “Anthony has impeccable manners. He’ll hold the door open for everyone. He says ‘please and thank you.’ His mother helped program his watch so that it goes off at regular intervals reminding Anthony that he needs to move to the next set of tasks. They make sure he eats healthy food and gets regular exercise. Their level of support is outstanding,” said Jane.

Anthony says that he likes to go to work. He has a lot of friends, both Valley employees and members of the Valley. When asked what he likes best about his job, Anthony doesn’t hesitate to say, “The pool.” When asked why, he explained it is because people there treat him well and that he likes to swim. In fact, he swam in the Special Olympics.

morningside
Before Anthony gets started cleaning at the Valley’s indoor pool he stops by the lifeguard desk and grabs his timer and checklist.

When Anthony isn’t working, you’ll find him in his own apartment, built on his parent’s property. He enjoys watching super hero movies like Captain America and listening to music. Recently, for his 30th birthday present his parents surprised him with a trip to Las Vegas where they attended a Shania Twain concert, which, Anthony says was great. However, it got even better. During the concert, Shania Twain called Anthony up on stage and gave him a hug. Anthony, a man of few words, said, “That was a really good day.”

To learn more about Morningside, visit www.morningsideservices.com.

 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
0 Shares