Bloomin' Flower Cards » Great People

Happy Vets Day!

Bloomin' Flower Cards — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:47:30 +0000

ongrats to all the veterans that have served in our military forces, and specifically to those who are now valuable members of our bloomin team, and. I know John, our production manager, and Shannon, our recently promoted papermaking sergeant, enjoyed their free steak at Applebees, (along with over 1,000,000 other vets) this Veteran’s Day. Throughout our 16 years, we’ve found the work ethic and get it done mentality of those who have served to be second to none. Thanks to all of those who have served and are serving to keep the dream alive. You Rock.

Don

Norman’s Last Dance

Bloomin' Flower Cards — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:00:55 +0000

This is a video of Norman’s last recorded Dance on his Birthday in September. He was an expert on the fine details you would see michael Jackson performing on stage.

Norman, we love and miss you more than you could ever know. Thanks for the gift of your friendship over all these years.

Norman

Bloomin' Flower Cards — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:07:35 +0000

You’re full of life, understanding, and love. Thank you for making a difference in my life, just for being you.

-Jen

We’ll miss you Norman

Bloomin' Flower Cards — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:23:28 +0000

Today was a really hard day at Bloomin’ – the hardest day we have ever known in our company’s 16 years. Our longest standing employee of 13 years, Norman Tankersley, passed away during the night at 42 years of age. Norm was differently abled and shared his gifts with all of us in immeasurable ways. He will be missed forever by everyone he touched. He helped us all appreciate the small things and live in the moment. He greeted his coworkers each day with bear hugs and announced his arrival with boisterous ramblings over the company intercom system. He loved being a part of our team and dreaded the arrival of his bus at the end of each day. New acquaintances were often surprised by his enthusiastic handshake or romantic kiss on the back of the lucky ladies’ hands. He loved laughing out loud at our missteps, fumbles, and stumbles throughout the day, reminding everyone not to take themselves too seriously. He has been there for all of us through the good times and the bad, helping to keep everything in perspective, like no one else possibly could. We will miss him and will never forget him. We are grateful for the unselfish gifts he shared and the lessons he unknowingly (or knowingly) taught us each day. We love you Norman. We miss you Norman!

Norm Tankersley 1966-2009

Outliers

Bloomin' Flower Cards — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 03:58:25 +0000

Ask me what makes our company great, and I’ll tell you its the people who work there. Our current team of All Star Rock Stars is constantly striving to build a better company for our valued customers every day. Be it back in the die cutting department, paper making, printing, accounting, assembly, shipping, customer service, sales, or the art department, we all are working hard to make Bloomin’ the best it can be. It’s the people that work there that make it so fun and exciting to come to work everyday. It is inspiring to see the diverse backgrounds and intersts that make up our complex, yet ever so simple company fabric.

I am a big fan of Malcolm Gladwell books. Having read the Tipping point and Blink, I was excited to find his latest release “Outliers” traveling back from one of my recent promotional products trade shows. He delivers many insightful accounts, including one of the Chinese rice farmers of the 15th century. He describes their work as particularly meaningful and entrepreneurial. “They weren’t just planting in the spring and harvesting in the fall, they autonomously ran their own small businesses - renting the best land they could find, juggling the family workforce, hedging uncertainty with hearty seed selection, building and maintaining sophisticated irrigation systems, and coordinating the complicated process of harvesting the first crop while simultaneously preparing the next”. Sounds a lot like the challenges and rewards we face at Bloomin!

In Outliers, Gladwell talks about how today’s very best hockey and soccer players are people who are not only talented and work hard but they also benefit from weird and peculiar ways in which their world is organized. I am certain the Outlier phenomenon occurs within many of our own key people, and has been instrumental in our ability to pen our own “Story of Success”. A good read, as are all of his books.

Don Martin

Pre-Cycle: why recycle when you can pre-cycle

Bloomin' Flower Cards — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 03:35:59 +0000

Here is Brijanna Carbone, a senior designer here at Bloomin. She is not a huge consumer. She likes to make things last. Why recycle when you can pre-cycle. Do you have any idea how much energy it takes to manufacture a new truck… well neither do I, but I know it’s a lot. That truck is old, but it still runs like 20th century magic I hear. Plus Brijanna looks so tough driving an old Dodge Ram about. No rust either, the truck that is, well both really. “Why buy new when you can use a dab of glue”.

Brijanna is keeping the dream alive, way to go Brijanna!

- Tom Noyes

Norm turned 42 today.

Bloomin' Flower Cards — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 20:09:36 +0000

Today was one of our biggest celebrations of the year. No one loves birthdays more than Norman, our longest employed person here at Bloomin’. He has been working here for 11 or 12 years. He has always been instrumental in getting our daily tasks finished on time.

For years he has shagged paper, (part of our paper making process). Now he preps paper for our 20 inkjet printers. FYI – we use inkjet printers for full color printing because they don’t damage any seeds, anyway, Norman rarely complains about anything, except maybe when his shift is finished. You should see him on payday. Can you say BEAR HUG!!! Oh, and his moon walk… you would almost think it’s Michael Jackson himself.

This place wouldn’t be the same without Norm, I really love him, we make each other happy. I think everyone loves him. We even had three former employees show up for Norm’s party. One hasn’t been working here for over 5 years. Norm’s place is most certainly here with us.

- Tom Noyes

Dr. Huck – Letterpress Guru

Bloomin' Flower Cards — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:36:12 +0000

Well, he isn’t really a doctor, but plays one here at Bloomin’. Kevin Huck is our letterpress guru and when Kevin is at the helm, he makes beautiful things happen! When Kevin is hard at work (which is pretty much 7 days/week), we can always feel confident that anything he does with his magic letterpress machine, will be nothing short of perfection. If you ask anybody here at Bloomin’, he deserves an honorary PhD for his outstanding work. Thanks, Kevin, for doing what you do!