A LOOK BACK: PARENTS PLAYED KEY ROLE

Today VIP Industries is the largest sheltered workshop operation in Missouri, employing 350 handicapped employees and a staff of approximately 60.

VIP has seven tractors, 47 trailers, 25 vans and two school buses. The current transportation system operates in an area 30 miles wide and 52 miles long. It runs approximately 210,000 miles per year, providing transportation back and forth to work for handicapped employees.

A sales force travels three days each week to procure new contract work.

The operation is working on magazines, coat and dress hangers, comic books, subscriptions for cookbooks and health books and many other packaging projects.

The annual budget is now $2,095,200. Between 55 and 60 percent of VIP's budget comes from production income.

It all started with a few concerned parents.

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1956: Local families with mentally handicapped children begin meeting and establish the Association for Retarded Citizens (ARC).

April 1962: Members of ARC write letters to then-state senator Al Spradling concerning appropriations for establishing a sheltered workshop in Southeast Missouri.

April 24, 1967: The Cape Girardeau Community Sheltered Workshop Inc. (VIP Industries) holds it first organizational meeting. A first-year budget of $14,000 was set. Bylaws called for a workshop to provide satisfying and productive daily occupations to persons 16 years and older who are so handicapped, mentally or physically, that they cannot function in competitive business.

October 1968: VIP Industries opens its doors and provides jobs to 17 handicapped individuals. The workshop was at 605 Good Hope. The first contract work was for Kasten Brick Co. of Jackson.

July 1969: Sixteen different contracts have been secured, including manufacture of wooden pallets, wooden stanchions, assembly and folding of booklets, sign assembly, sorting and inspecting pins, salvaging magnets and repainting soda cases. Twenty-two employees perform the work. Money comes from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, United Way, Community Chest, service clubs, an annual membership drive and the work that employees complete.

September 1971: Expansion becomes necessary because individuals from Ste. Genevieve and Perry counties want to give their handicapped population a chance to work at VIP Industries. The old Bamby Bakery building, 535 Good Hope, was purchased.

July 1972: Hilary F. Schmittzehe was hired as executive director. Schmittzehe has previously served as a member of the Board of Directors. That same year, VIP began to tap federal money and receives a grant to purchase two buses and pay some staff salaries. Fifty-eight handicapped individuals are employed.

December 1972: VIP receives a federal Developmental Disabilities Service and Equipment grant for $21,483 to establish a satellite operation in Lutesville.

January 1973: The Lutesville Workshop opens its doors with 30 handicapped employees. The Marble Hill Hat Factory provides a contract for the Lutesville satellite operation to produce 100,000 earmuffs in its first year.

December 1973: VIP opens a recycling center at 605 Good Hope, after being approached by the city of Cape Girardeau with the idea.

Jan. 1975: Ralph Chitty, Robert Landgraf and Schmittzehe tell the county court of its plan to submit a tax levy to voters. The money would fund and maintain a residential facility for the adult handicapped and finance the operation of existing programs at VIP.

April 1: The 10-cent per $1 of assessed valuation levy is approved.

March 1976: VIP Industries of Cape Girardeau takes an option on a 12-acre site on Highway 74. This would be the location of a new 25,000-square-foot masonry building. VIP employed 179 handicapped clients and was the largest sheltered workshop in Missouri.

Sept. 1976: Perry County opens its own VIP Industries satellite plant in Perryville. That same year, voters in Bollinger County vote a 10-cent tax increase for the sheltered workshop program in that county.

May 29, 1977: Dedication for Cape Girardeau's new VIP building is held.

May 1979: VIP is named employer of the year by the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation. For the first time since the award's inception, a sheltered workshop was honored.

1980: VIP Industries begins a recreation program for employees operated through the Association for Retarded Citizens. Outings included bingo, dancing, movies, Special Olympics, company picnics, mini-vacations, holiday parties, trips to Cardinals baseball games, and a bowling league.

1984: VIP seeks expansion funds to provide employment opportunities to individuals on the waiting list. At this time, 260 persons are served by VIP.

May 1984: VIP Industries has four plants: two in Cape Girardeau, one in Lutesville and one in Perryville.

Oct. 13, 1986: An open house for the new, $500,000 Fruitland satellite is held. The cost of the plant was funded through the sheltered workshop mill tax over 10 years. The plant opened with 25 handicapped employees.