Goodwill® and Walmart Foundation Connect Veterans with Job Success

ROCKVILLE, MD — A new program, funded by the Walmart Foundation and administered by Goodwill®, will empower military veterans with the tools they need to find employment, advance in their careers and ensure long-term financial stability for their families. The Walmart Foundation’s grant of $1 million will support the program, known as Operation: GoodJobs, at Goodwill agencies in the three key markets of Austin, Houston and Tacoma through 2013. Together, Goodwill and the Walmart Foundation will collaborate with a broad array of community partners to help ensure that veterans and their families have every opportunity to succeed.

“Everyone is struggling to find good jobs these days, but veterans face particular challenges and it is our duty as a nation to support these young men and women who are having difficulties transitioning back into civilian life," said Jim Gibbons, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries International. “We at Goodwill believe it is absolutely imperative that we give each of these veterans every opportunity they need to thrive.”
Operation: GoodJobs assists veterans with job training and placement, but also plans for each participant’s continued success by designing individualized, holistic plans that support the needs of their entire family and helps ensure economic security for participants and their families in the long-term. Each participant in Operation: GoodJobs will receive a complete career assessment and an individualized development plan that will include a range of family needs, from basic needs like nutrition, shelter and child care, to specific job training identified in the assessment process.
“As one of the nation’s largest private employers of veterans and those on active duty, we share Goodwill’s vision of a country where every veteran has a chance to succeed economically and support his or her family,” said retired U.S. Army Brigadier General Gary Profit, senior director of military programs at Walmart. “Making that vision a reality starts today through Operation: GoodJobs. These young men and women stood up for us, and now it’s our turn to stand up for them.”
Veterans return home as proven leaders who have demonstrated their work ethic and commitment to achieving results as part of a team. Operation: GoodJobs will help to provide the necessary career counseling, resume help and skills training, so that veterans can obtain employment positions and in turn, employers can realize their skills and talents and match those skills with available employment opportunities.

Walmart Announces Winners of Popular "Get on the Shelf" Contest

SAN BRUNO, Calif. – May 3, 2012 – Walmart (NYSE: WMT) today announced the final winners of its popular Get on the Shelf contest, HumanKind Water, PlateTopper and SnapIt Eyeglass Repair Kit. More than 4,000 inventors, entrepreneurs and small businesses from across the country entered the contest with video submissions for products ranging from household wares and children’s toys to organic food and green items. Over one million votes were cast by the public to vie for the opportunity to be carried at Walmart.com and in Walmart U.S. stores.

HumanKind Water, a bottled water company that gives 100 percent of its net profits towards clean drinking water for underdeveloped communities worldwide, was the Grand Prize winner. PlateTopper, a kitchen product that transforms dinner plates into airtight food storage containers, came in second. SnapIt Eyeglass Repair Kit, a screw kit to fix glasses in 30 seconds, was the third winner. All three products will be available on Walmart.com and HumanKind Water will also be on physical shelves in select Walmart U.S. stores soon.
“Get on the Shelf has brought out the best in American ingenuity and creativity with products that are clever, fun and useful,” said Joel Anderson, president and CEO of Walmart.com. “The three winners demonstrated a deep passion, incredible imagination, and sheer persistence in their journey. We congratulate them and are proud to carry their products at Walmart.”
HumanKind Water
HumanKind is on a mission to deliver clean filtered water to people in the world who need it the most. HumanKind, based in Philadelphia, reports that more than one billion people – one in seven across the globe– lack access to clean drinking water and half of all hospital beds in the world are filled with people dying from lack of clean water or sanitation. With the digging of wells, installation of filtration and chlorination systems and possible harvesting of rain, HumanKind believes the problem can be eradicated. For them, if every American purchased $10 worth of HumanKind Water a year – less than what most spend on Halloween candy – it could nearly eradicate one of the world’s largest and most tragic physical problems. HumanKind Water will be available soon on Walmart.com. In the meantime customers can sign up for an email alert to notify them when the product is available.
PlateTopper
PlateTopper, based in San Francisco, is the brainchild of Michael Tseng who first developed a prototype for the product in 2005 when he was studying at Princeton University. Michael then went on to complete his graduate studies in biomedical engineering and medicine while working on PlateTopper part-time. In the last year, Michael has spent all of his time perfecting PlateTopper to enable people to quickly and easily store food right on the dinner plate.

SnapIt Eyeglass Repair Kit
SnapIt Eyeglass Repair Kit, out of East Wenatchee, Washington, is a patented screw kit that fixes sunglasses or eyeglasses in 30 seconds. Inventor Nancy Tedeschi created SnapIt when her mother used a dangling earring to hold her broken glasses together. After starting on a path to create eyeglass charms, Nancy wanted an easier way to screw together eyeglasses and reinvented the tiny screws that are hard to grasp. SnapIt’s design employs a feeder tab that guides the screws in place, and can easily be snapped off once the glasses are secured.

Throughout the contest, the winning inventors went the distance to market their participation. Humankind Water transformed its homepage into a “war room” completely dedicated to getting votes. PlateTopper deployed humorous videos and social marketing tactics to raise visibility, including a YouTube video, which has been viewed more than two million times. Nancy of SnapIt even went to the NBC Today Show’s plaza in New York where her assistant dressed as a giant screw and was seen on national television with a sign asking for votes.
Get on the Shelf, a program from @WalmartLabs, launched in January of this year where contestants sent in videos of their latest inventions to be voted on by the public. In the first 24 hours of the contest voting, which began March 7, nearly 95 percent of the participants received a vote via Facebook or text. The top five product categories were home improvement, personalized products, health/wellness/fitness, fashion apparel/home and outdoor home. For more information, visit http://getontheshelf.com.