From Finance to Philanthropy: Lloyd Lewis’ Mission with Arc Thrift

SPEAKER 02 : 0:00

Hey there, friend. Angie Austin here with the good news, joined by my friend, president and CEO of Arc Thrift, Lloyd Lewis. Hello there, Lloyd.

SPEAKER 01 : 0:08

Angie, how are you doing?

SPEAKER 02 : 0:10

I’m doing quite well. You know, we’ve done so many interviews over the years, and I wanted to talk about a couple of different things today. You’ve got a gala coming up. I’m volunteering now with the ambassadors. I just started last week, and I want to talk about the program because I get the schedule, so I see and understand a lot more about what ARC University is and what you do with the ambassadors in terms of ARC University. and the program in general. But first, let’s give an overview of what Arc Thrift does and how you give back. So should we start there?

SPEAKER 01 : 0:43

Sure, that’d be great. So our primary mission is to fund advocacy for people with developmental disabilities. And in so doing, we support 15 Arc advocacy chapters affiliated with the Arc of the United States. And the chapters we support are all around the state, from Fort Collins to Pueblo and on the Western Slope. There are 15 of these chapters. And they help people with developmental disabilities find jobs, find housing, find medical services, services at schools, et cetera. All the kinds of supports that people with developmental disabilities need. Developmental disabilities, as you and your listeners know, are congenital disorders that occur before age 18, most typically Down syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy, but all forms of cognitive impairment. And, um, before we talk about the ambassadors, we also distribute a million dollars a year in vouchers to people in organizations in need all around the state, three to five relief efforts every week. Uh, we also are very large recycler, a billion and a half pounds of donations recycled during my tenure, keeping them out of, uh, landfills. Uh, we, we also, um, are a big food provider. two people in need, four million pounds of food collected during my tenure. Wow. So there’s practically no need in this state that we can’t help support, and we never turn anyone down. In my 20th year.

SPEAKER 02 : 2:17

Wow. And I remember when I met you, you had left big business to do this, and part of that is your own personal story, correct?

SPEAKER 01 : 2:29

Yeah, I left the private sector. I had Been with Smith Barney doing muni finance in Philadelphia. I had an MBA in finance from the University of Chicago. Came out here with IBM as a senior financial analyst, director of financial publicly traded medical equipment company, CFO for a high tech, ultimately sold to Micron just before I joined ARC. And I joined ARC because in 2003, I had a little boy born with Down syndrome. And I committed my life going forward to helping people like my son, initially scientific research advocacy, which resulted in the largest Down syndrome research facility anywhere in the world, gifted with 32 million from the John C family, and named for a neuroscientist I brought into the project, Linda Cernick. The Linda Cernick Institute exists at CU at Anschutz. From there, I was recruited to ARC, where I thought I could take my business skills to help people like my son. And so I started with ARC in May 05. Initially, it was a financial turnaround. We did that 14 record years pre-COVID. We became an essential business during COVID. And we’ve had good years since. So we’ve now funded, by the way, well over $200 million to disability advocacy and disability employment. And a quarter of a billion dollars to charity in general. And over the next 20 years, it will be more on the order of $400 million. In terms of the ambassadors, who you know well, ambassadors in our company are employees with developmental disabilities. When I started, we had 10 ambassadors. Today we have 500 ambassadors. And they work in all aspects of our company. They may collect donations or accept donations. They may help us process donations. tag them prize them run them out to the sales floor they work in our corporate office in hr and loss prevention and accounting all aspects of our company we have created supplemental programs for them you’re now participating with us in those programs we have an educational program that we call arc university and it’s a series of monthly post-secondary style classes in money, computers, pet care, transportation, etc. And we designed it for participation, not grades. And if ambassadors participate in a single class taught by a volunteer over lunch, they get a certificate. They participate in 6 of 12 a bachelor’s degree, 9 of 12 a master’s degree, 12 of 12 a PhD. And when you go to our annual graduation, which you’ve spoken at you would think you were at like a harvard commencement ceremony they’re very fired up oh very excited yes yes and getting their certificates and yeah it’s pretty exciting some learn a lot some learn not so much some but but all but we do it as much for self-esteem and self-confidence as learning but they do learn we also have a social program where we’ll On a monthly basis, go to the movies or the zoo or the botanic garden or a museum or do karaoke. We have another monthly program with the international Civitans where our ambassadors do community service. They might collect socks for the homeless. They might write letters to seniors living in assisted living. They might bake cookies for the police. They love to give back. And they’re part of this international organization where I believe they’ll be likely recognized next year for the good work they do at an international Civitas convention, a century-old organization, service organization that focuses on helping people with disabilities.

SPEAKER 02 : 6:45

And the ambassadors differently abled with cognitive deficits. You had just about five working for you as ambassadors when you started the company, and how many do you have now?

SPEAKER 01 : 6:56

Yeah, we had 10 when I started. Today we have 500. Wow, that’s unbelievable. It’s grown tremendously, and the company’s never been more successful. I believe they have a very positive impact on morale. And when you enhance morale, you enhance productivity. When you enhance productivity, you enhance revenue. When you enhance revenue, you enhance earnings. So I would do it anywhere. I think it’s the right thing to do, and it makes a lot of business sense.

SPEAKER 02 : 7:25

The ambassadors, it was neat because when I volunteered last week, my son’s been doing an internship with you over the summer. So I got to volunteer with him and see him interact with the ambassadors. And since I’ve had interactions with your company since right around when your son was born, my kids have kind of grown up knowing some of the ambassadors or at least interacting with them coming to the graduations with me. So it was fun to see him interact and have relationships with some of the ambassadors. That was great. Neat to see him do that. And then your right-hand woman, Maggie, who does all your marketing, Maggie brought my son on the Channel 9 segment they did on National Thrift Day. So that was pretty cool since he also has a thrifting business in addition to working with you guys. So that was pretty neat to see him and how he has benefited from knowing the ambassadors and the relationships that he’s developed.

SPEAKER 01 : 8:21

What was the event that you did last week?

SPEAKER 02 : 8:24

I did the zoo. We changed it. It was going to be, yeah, yeah, yeah. We did the zoo.

SPEAKER 01 : 8:30

So that would have been a lot of fun. And your son has been very helpful to the company and very popular with company employees and ambassadors. And he has a good heart and he, he’s pretty good on secondhand resales.

SPEAKER 02 : 8:47

Yeah, he’s done all right with that. Yeah, it’s been a great experience for him professionally. Now, in terms of the ambassadors, we had a group in how that you help them. Like Juan, for instance, he showed me his wheelchair. I believe Juan has cerebral palsy, and his wheelchair is – you have to have a license to drive it. It’s that like – And that advanced and it stands him up so he can be like he needed to look at some monkeys that were, you know, he couldn’t see over the barrier. And so he lifted himself way up. And one of the other people in our group asked him how much it is for one of those wheelchairs. And I think it was upwards of forty five thousand dollars. And so these are things the ambassadors need help with that are thrift. help some of them with I don’t know that particular one but I’ve known other ambassadors that ARC has helped them purchase their wheelchair so they can get around and then we had Dylan with us Dylan has Down Syndrome is very high functioning he was so interesting I said to him he really got along with my son Riley and it’s the first time I’d met Dylan and I said oh I sometimes the hippos can be you know very mean he goes I believe they’re just territorial like and he writes scripts

SPEAKER 01 : 10:02

Oh, that’s actually accurate. So that’s cool.

SPEAKER 02 : 10:05

Yes, he actually writes scripts. And he, you know, they have, I’ve told you, I love that show Love on the Spectrum. And he said he would like something just specifically for Down syndrome kids. And he wants to name it Down with Love.

SPEAKER 01 : 10:20

Oh, that’s very cool. That’s very cool. Yeah, very, very creative.

SPEAKER 02 : 10:25

And then the last ambassador that was in our group that I got such a kick out of, and I’ve known him for probably 14 years now, is Miles. And Miles is on the spectrum and one of the most delightful, musically oriented dances as the karaoke comes from a music family. And when he came in to do my show, he’s done it four times now. he brought his relatives with him and they wrote a song for me about the good news so i’ve known miles for years so i was thrilled that he was in our group as well my son of course knows him so it was a fun day i mean it’s volunteering because you know they need help you know with the groups of ambassadors just to make sure everybody stays together but you know it’s not working it’s having a fun day really and then i haven’t done the civetans yet civetans where they uh you know give back to the community and uh that’ll be coming up and then i’ll start working with the ambassador classes as well where they uh you know teach them different skills like how to get around on public transit and you know um social norms and like you know how to interact with people in an appropriate manner and not be taken advantage of etc so uh i know a lot of those classes are pretty neat in terms of teaching them really great life skills as well

SPEAKER 01 : 11:35

Yeah. Our employment programs become very central in their lives. Like all human beings, they want to contribute and they want to, you know, have friends and they want to be productive during the day. And it, you know, what we find is it becomes a very, very important part of their life and also in the life of their families. So we’re just thrilled. We’re able to do it. We’re expanding into New Mexico and Texas. And we’ll be creating ambassador programs in those states. We have a store in Albuquerque. Our second Albuquerque store will open later this year. Wow. We’ll be opening our first store in Texas and San Antonio next year and maybe a second as well. We are opening a store in Glenwood Springs before year end. We now have 36 stores. We had 17 when I started. Wow. We’re going to continue to grow and fund the work that we do as much as we can. I also chair four disability boards in Colorado. The Colorado Cross Disability Coalition, which does individual and systemic advocacy and ADA enforcement. The Atlantis Community Foundation, which does integrated disability housing affordable. Adams Camp, which does adventure and therapy camps in the summer for kids with IDD. and then also Best Buddies Colorado. I also am treasurer on the ARPA United States Foundation Board, which does national work, and then an international organization, Inclusion International, which has members in 100 countries and will be doing a World Congress with participants from 70 countries in charge of UAE in mid-September. So all of this started with the birth of my son, and my goal is to help as many, including my son, as I can.

SPEAKER 02 : 13:40

And the gala’s coming up, and donations. You need donations, so that’s arcthrift.com, and any ARC store, you can drop off your donations. And then tell us about the gala. When is that?

SPEAKER 01 : 13:51

That is September 4th at 6 o’clock at the Denver Botanic Gardens. And at our gala, we will recognize three heroes of the year, We’re employees who have developmental disabilities who, through their personality and positivity in the workplace, creates a tremendous contribution. We’ll also have a fashion show with employees with disabilities and some of our managers and other people from the community. And then we’ll be presenting a Distinguished Leadership Award to the International Civitans Group that we work with. one of whom, members, is a past president of International Civitans and another who is president-elect this coming year. So we typically have 600 guests, and it’s a beautiful setting, and we do it as much to celebrate our mission and our ambassadors as for financial support.

SPEAKER 02 : 14:52

Well, if you want more info on that, arcthrift.com. We’re out of time. Thank you so much, Lloyd Lewis, president and CEO of Arc Thrift. Thank you, friend.