Jeff knows a lot about pens.
Just ask, and he’ll tell you countless stories about what makes SKILCRAFT® pens so interesting. Like how they can be used as an emergency tracheotomy or to sign critical bills to pass legislation.
Jeff can tell you these stories because he’s been operating the equipment that assembles IBVI’s ballpoint SKILCRAFT pens for almost two decades.
He also has Myopia, a condition that makes faraway objects difficult to see. But that hardly slows him down. Last year alone, he helped produce around 8 million pens.
And they’re not just any pens either—they’re made for the U.S. government. Jeff likes to imagine them going on to sign important bills, policies, legislation, laws—even classified documents.
But that’s not all these pens do. They also tell Jeff’s story. Back in 2004, he and his wife both joined IBVI after closing their small coffee shop business. And for the next decade and a half, they raised their three kids (two boys and one girl) at their forever house in West Allis, Wisconsin.
Together, they made a wonderful life together. And you can see it unfold in a scrapbook full of Jeff’s pictures. Flipping through the album, you’ll see pictures celebrating moments over the last 30 years: From the day Jeff and his wife became new homeowners to family birthday parties, their daughter’s first communion and their son’s high school graduation. When asked how his career at IBVI changed him, Jeff’s response says it all:
“It’s just given me the opportunity to do things that I wanted to do…And it’s made me a pretty solid person.”
There’s a lot of jobs out there, Jeff explains. But there’s a lot fewer that provide the opportunity to do something that makes a difference. IBVI has given Jeff that purpose, and it’s also given him an opportunity to grow his career. After years of working on the factory floor, he started taking online management courses at IBVI’s free online training center to further his skills. Whether he chooses to follow a career path toward a desk job in management or continues to use his incredible talent on the factory floor to assemble pens, he’ll be doing it with a true sense of purpose.
“What we’re doing actually makes a difference because a lot of the stuff we make—makes a difference. And we’re proud of that.”
Learn more about Jeff at ibvican.org
