Michael Kuvent is longest employeed person at Blue Q since Blue Q moved from Boston to the Berkshires.  That was over 20 years ago.

Last Friday it was his time to retire….so, we bid adieu to Michael.  Seth gave him to key to Blue Q.  Here’s a sweet article about the event written by the Berkshire Eagle.

It was a much deserved retirement party to remember.  We all got our pictures taken with him:

And this is a photo of Michael and his wife, Gracie.

Michael was employed by Blue Q through Berkshire County ARC.  On the back of some of our products you will see the phrase: “Blue Q employs a work force of disabled and non-disabled individuals working together to assemble this product”. Blue Q has been the largest private employer of individuals with disabilities in Western Massachusetts for over 10 years. Millions of packages of Blue Q magnets, soaps and other products have been assembled in our airy, art filled Production Department. This employment program is coordinated for Blue Q by Berkshire County ARC (Association for Retarded Citizens), whose mission is “to assist and support individuals to identify and realize their chose lifestyles.” Berkshire County ARC oversees the hiring and retaining our crew, and assists with many other aspects of their lives away from work, too, and we love ‘em!

In many ways this is the soul of Blue Q, and if you come to one of our company bowling or kickball events, or observe Friday morning art classes, you’ll understand why.

***Check back tomorrow and I’ll upload video of Michael’s retirement party complete with a visit from Pittsfield’s Mayors office and a limo, of course!***

Remember how poor Jenny had a 10th Anniversary at Blue Q surprise party?

But then she called in sick?

Well, we finally made it up to her.  Today.  It’s snowing.  Like white out snowing.  So it was pretty darn cozy in here.  All the love…can’t you just FEEL it?

Falafel, hummus, salad that had like…..pistachios?….oh my god, I now love pistachios in my salad and then that little pita number on the bottom left is pita that was broiled with toasted walnuts, sherry, tabasco and cheddar.

Congratulations again, Jenny.  10 years.  1 company.  That’s pretty damn amazing.  And Blue Q has like 6 employees who can claim that prize.

Crap.  It really is snowing out there.  I wonder how much wine is left over….

Jenny has been at Blue Q for 10 friggin’ years.

We’ve been celebrating some other 10 year annversaries this year – Mic, Deborah, Louise, Ken, John, Mike….some more elaborate (like a rendition of some Grateful Dead song in the dark with flashlights but that’s another story), some very simple.  We thought, Oh heck, let’s do a little fun office lunchy thing for Jenny.

So, to show our appreciation of service, Sergio Bencivenga’s mom made her famous meatballs (Oh my GOD kinda meatballs) and penne with homemade sauce, Handyman brought in his homemade vintage Chianti, Tracy brought in silver, Deborah graced the table with linens, Jess made an amazing antipasto salad (you get the idea).

But, then Jenny called in sick.

And honestly, she sounded like total crap when she called in this morning.

But, you know…the show must go on.  I mean, Mama Bencivenga cooked yesterday too.  For today.  I’m not Catholic but, you know.   Guilt.  So. 

This was our table.

This is what we ate.


This is Jenny.

This is what she ate.

Happy Anniversary, Jenny.  There are leftovers for you (yes, the chocolate mice included).   The only thing not left over was stimulating conversation.

Two prodominating topics of discussion:

1. The Winter Olympics and how most of us think we could Curl in the Olympics (It’s like the one event we could all envision ourselves not being too far off physically from the requirements).

2. How full we all were.  Like coma-full.