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On Wednesday, Goodwill Industries hosted a big hiring event and resource fair at the convention center at the Great Wolf Lodge. The event offered attendees over 1000 different full-time and part-time positions.

“The goal of the hiring event is to enable employers to talk to people that really want to work and make a connection with them,” said Bob Goehring, manager of the Goodwill Career Center. “If you do this, this is what you can get paid, here are the benefits and so on,” Goehring said. “You can communicate this better here than you could on Indeed.”

Included among the companies and resources at the fair were Milliken, Duracell, Chick-fil-a, Naos Staffing and TRC Staffing and Services Inc.

“This is almost four times as big any job fair we have hosted and it’s all thanks to Great Wolf,” Goehring said. “None of the vendors had to pay a nickel to come.” 

“There is a lot of opportunity here to apply for jobs and ask questions that you wouldn’t be able to do online,” said Mardriques Parks, a job seeker.

According to Goehring, the Career Center has been a part of Goodwill’s primary mission of providing job training and placement services.

Goehring said, the idea of having such a large hiring event came from Human Resource Manager, Heather Van Devender.

“We have an average of 130 people come to each job fair we do.

About two months ago, Heather suggested that we try to do a big one that’s large enough that the whole community can come and be a part of it,” he said.

Since the doors opened in earlier in April, Goodwill has hosted seven multi-employer job fairs, which according to Goehring, have been hugely successful.

Having the hiring and resource fair in house served as a dual purpose to Great Wolf Lodge. The first purpose was to help the community get connected to people who want to work, and the second was to help those who need additional resources find it in one place.

“Obviously, we are looking for employees as well but more so than that this an event for the community. We felt especially with the partnership Bob and Heather established between our organizations, it would be the right thing to invite the community in and do what’s best for them,” said Katherine Morefield, human resource manager for Great Wolf Lodge.

‘We’re all in the same boat, we’re all looking for employees and what better place for people to come in apply for a job and get additional resources they can utilize.”