Jan
31

Draper Hosts Service Awards Banquet

Guest Post by Gini Deaton

Service Awards Luncheon

Service Awards Luncheon

Each year Draper honors its employees who have reached a five year incremental anniversary with the company. This year the luncheon was held at the Hoover Hall in Spiceland on Friday, January 20, 2011.

Karl Dick, the director of HR at Draper opened the event by noting that the average length of stay at most companies in the U.S. was three to five years. At Draper, he said, the average is around 17 years!

The luncheon consisted of games and giveaways and a nice lunch buffet. After lunch, as the name of each employee was called starting with 5 years of service Karl related some historic facts about the company and what was going on in the world at that time. Each honoree was acknowledged and the Draper Executive committee shook hands and thanked each one. Door prizes ranging from cash to games and household appliances were given away and fun was had by all!

There were 64 employees being honored for anniversaries in 2011. One person was honored for 40 years of service, 2 for 35 years of service, 3 for 30 years of service, 4 for 25 years of service, 4 for 20 years of service, 17 for 15 years of service, 25 for 10 years of service and 8 for 5 years of service.

Gini Deaton, guest blogger for this post, is Draper’s web designer and was honored for five year’s service at the recent luncheon.

About John Pidgeon

My name is John Pidgeon and I am Draper’s president.

I was born to this job. Draper was founded by my great grandfather Luther Draper. My grandfather Elmer Pidgeon and my father Luther Pidgeon have served as Draper’s president.

My career here dates from the summer of 1957 when I began mowing the company lawn. The pay was good – $3.00 for four hours work. My job description and compensation have improved moderately since then.

I will be writing from time to time on matters of general interest.