Pelican Announces Partnership with Riverside Industries to Empower and Provide Jobs for People with Disabilities

Pelican Products, Inc., has partnered with Riverside Industries, a Massachusetts organization whose mission is to empower people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to live rich and full lives. Riverside’s employment services assist people in discovering fulfilling work and learning necessary job skills for a satisfying employment experience.

“We are honored to be partnering with a company like Pelican” says Director of Employment Nicholas Isherwood. “Pelican has been very welcoming and accommodating to our clients. They all love the work at Pelican and find great purpose and fulfilment in being a part of the team there. It’s been great to see the integration into the culture at Pelican and to earn the respect of their co-workers. We are grateful that Pelican gave us this opportunity to show how someone with a developmental disability can be an asset to any business.”

The partnership began with just two clients from Riverside Industries and has grown to 13. The new employees perform work across a variety of manufacturing areas and are a crucial part in the assembly of Pelican’s award-winning protective cases and coolers, including:

• Assembling backers for injection molded STORM CASE ™ cases
• Working on pre-assembly kits in the rotational molding department
• Assembly of injection molded coolers
• Assembly of STORM CASE cases

“It has been a great experience partnering with Riverside Industries” says Vice President and General Manager Chris Favreau. “They are a very professional organization and employ unique and necessary approach to supporting local industry. In a short amount of time, we have built a solid relationship that brings positive results for both organizations.”

With an increased workload, the Pelican team in South Deerfield is looking to add even more Riverside clients to the injection molding crew next year.