Durke Todd spends his days shredding documents for the Internal Revenue Service, Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators and the like.
That may not sound like thrilling work to most people, but Todd said he loves it.
"I make sure (the machine) doesn't jam up," he said. "I make sure everything goes through smoothly."
It's that job at the shredder that helps Todd's days go smoothly. As one of about 200 people with disabilities who work at Columbus Community Center in Salt Lake City, he gets a regular paycheck, a portfolio of job skills and, most importantly, a purpose in life.
And DMBA gets its sensitive documents — 500 to 700 pounds of them each week — destroyed in a timely manner and at a competitive price, said Robert Lingard, DMBA manager of central services.
"The appealing factor, obviously, was the work of the handicapped that they use," said Lingard, explaining why the company switched to Columbus' National Data Guard business for document destruction about six months ago.
"We've had excellent results. . . . I think it's great to support the handicapped in this sort of a program. And (National Data) has done an excellent job of supporting us and our business and taking care of the needs that we have."
For businesses trying to "do well by doing good," Columbus has been the place to go for more than three decades.
The center, jointly operated by the Community Foundation for the Disabled and the Salt Lake City School District, began in 1968 when parents of children with developmental disabilities wanted an alternative to state hospitals.
"(The parents) needed something for them to do other than just sit at home," said Dean Hoffman, Columbus administrator.
"Over the years, it was more of a center for people to come to to have activities," he said. But now, "one of our major goals is to provide good work opportunities for folks with disabilities. We're moving in that direction."
Columbus provides employment, training and residential services to 500 to 600 people with disabilities each year. For the last 30 years, one of those people has been Steven Dial, son of Arlene Dial of Salt Lake City.
Steven Dial, now 50, has mental and physical disabilities and has been a client of Columbus almost since it started. He now works on-site six hours a day for a medical supply company, Arlene Dial said, and he loves it.
"He loves to make the money and take airplane trips to see a sister in Arizona," Arlene Dial said. "He's really contented down there (at Columbus)."
She said Steven Dial is proud of his career accomplishments, and she is glad the center provides opportunities for people with disabilities to overcome perceptions that they cannot learn to work.
"He's quite capable of a lot of things, but his eyesight is very poor," Arlene Dial said. "He works hard, and he earns every penny he makes. He comes home so proud. It really does something for an individual to be able to make his own way in life."
Bradley Collings, director of business operations at Columbus, said about 180 people help support themselves by working at the center, 3495 S. West Temple. Another 40 to 60 work at jobs away from Columbus, which has a waiting list of more than 800 people statewide who want to work.
"It's important that they function and have job experience . . . out in the community," Collings said. "We try to integrate them into the community as much as possible."
Workers from Columbus perform grounds maintenance and custodial jobs. They do laundry for University Hospital. At the Columbus facility, they package medical tubing, assemble hydraulic seals, package scrapbook supplies and, of course, shred sensitive documents.
The shredding business, branded separately under the National Data Guard name, has been in operation since October, Collings said.
"The document destruction business allows us to put people with extreme disabilities to work where they can work with paper and can work with their hands," he said. "It's a good niche for people. We have people in wheelchairs who are able to do that, people who are blind."
Collings said they take the document destruction business "very seriously." The National Data Guard portion of Columbus follows stringent guidelines for security and is the only plant-based facility in Utah that is certified by the National Association of Information Destruction. That means its employees go through background checks; they wear different shirts and ID badges than other people at Columbus to eliminate "casual entry"; and their shredding room is under constant camera surveillance.
Some of the workers at National Data Guard busily open files, removing staples and paper clips from the papers they contain. Jeremy Allred is one of them. He said it is not hard work, and he enjoys it. But when asked what he likes most about working at Columbus, the answer has nothing to do with document destruction.
"I like the people," he said.
After Allred and his fellow workers finish sorting the paper, they send it over to Todd, who runs it through the shredder with the help of a supervisor.
"It allows us to employ a lot of people in this process," Collings said. "We want to put people to work. . . . And our (workers) are not interested in what's in the documents."
The document destruction business takes in between 10 and 20 tons of fiber every week, he said, and all of that shredded paper is sent on for recycling.
Hoffman said National Data Guard offers prices that are similar to other local shredding businesses, and it competes for contracts like any other company.
Columbus employees are paid industry-standard wages, Collings said. The center completes wage studies of companies that do the same work to determine a prevailing wage, based on production rate. Employees are paid based on that wage rate and their own productivity.
"We're just like any other business," he said. "What we're looking for in moving our organization forward is partnerships in the business community. We're not looking for donations or handouts.
"If these people don't have jobs, you and I are going to be paying for them anyway. . . . We want to help people be self-sufficient and stand on their own."
Hoffman said Columbus' various departments also stand on their own, without subsidies, and they operate "just like any other normal business."
Anyone walking through the facility probably would think it was a "normal business." People sit at tables, sorting scrapbooking supplies, assembling bird-feeding sticks for the zoo, sewing laundry bags for the prison system.
About the only difference between Columbus and any other workplace may be the enthusiasm of its employees.
"People love this work," Collings said. "They're excited every day about coming to work."
Jobs that are labor-intensive and involve repetitive procedures are uniquely suited for the operations at Columbus, he said. And giving opportunities to people with disabilities in such cases also can help businesses.
"With the help of corporate partners, we can really make a difference in someone's life," he said.
Arlene Dial said she doesn't know what the community — or her son — would do without Columbus.
"I think what Steven would be if he had sat home for all of these years," she said. "I think it's wonderful he's had a place to go and to work and to feel needed, and feel that he's contributing to society."
E-mail: gkratz@desnews.com