TOLEDO – A warehouse building at 3350 Hill Avenue may seem like any other box warehouse in Toledo, but this is where Lott Industries Inc. has made their home.
“Everything we do at Lott, we do out of our heart,” said Tim Menke, the CEO of Lott, a nonprofit that specializes in providing work to people with disabilities.
Community building
But beyond the general mission of Lott helping those with developmental disabilities find vocational training or employment, an unspoken cultural mission is deep at work, providing space and resources to other groups who strengthen the fabric of Toledo.
“He’s always looking to how he can help the community,” said Mayra Leitner, the principal of God’s Lighthouse Academy (GLA), of Menke’s (Mr. Tim’s) leadership of Lott. “We need that community, and he’s always been willing to help in that.”
GLA, a school focusing on individual attention for kids K-12, is one of the latest organizations Lott has partnered with.
Leitner mentioned Lott allowed them space at their facility without major expense while the school goes through the chartering process.
Lott, works with Harbor rehabilitation services, Food for Thought mobile food pantry, Lucas Soil Water Conservation District, Water for Ishmael’s (WFI) Global Opportunities program, Widows Empowered Strengthened & I Inc (W.E.S. & I Inc.) and with Maumee Valley Habitat for Humanity to help “10 of our people become homeowners over the last decade,” Menke said.
Up and coming for Lott is a new collaboration with the Epilepsy Center of Northwest Ohio and Anne Grady Services to create a new brewery in the back of Lott’s property called HopAbility.
“We like to use every inch of our space here,” said Larry Deitering, the CFO of Lott Industries Inc.
Gratitude
When TFP spoke with Menke on Oct. 7, he admitted that there were a lot of hoops to jump through with the Department of Developmental Disabilities (DODD), Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities (OOD) and the Department of Labor (DOL).
“I was kind of browbeating myself,” he said, but little did he know that members of W.E.S. & I had organized an appreciation celebration for Menke that day, aided by his workers, the school and a number of the organizations Menke has helped out over the years.
Upon walking into the Lott Industries’ main conference room, Menke was overcome, and shed a tear. Scores of employees and members of various organizations clapped and celebrated his leadership, as his wife and daughter also joined in.
“Everything he does, he puts his full heart into. And I know people see him here at work a lot, and of course they love and appreciate who he is,” said Katie Turner, Menke’s daughter.
Turner said it was significant to see other people appreciate her father the way she appreciates him.
Lott’s CFO summarized Menke’s heart in an anecdote. “Every time I would walk around with Tim, he knew every single person’s name, every client’s name out there, and that has always stuck with me,” Deitering said. “You have to have good memory for one thing, but you have to take a vested interest. And that’s what I immediately saw in Tim.”
Organizer of the event, Idell Watson, founder of W.E.S. & I Inc., said she had been putting it together for a few months. Together with staff at Lott, W.E.S. & I Inc. presented Menke with an honorary bench at the entrance to Lott, and bought a number of donuts the GLA students were appreciative of.
“We just wanted to show Tim that we appreciate it,” Watson said. Recalling walking into Lott to just share about her organization’s goals, Menke volunteered his conference rooms as a place for the widows to meet without charge.
“He just has such a big heart…I’m so thankful to have him [and] Lott Industries as our partner.”
A few brief words from Watson celebrated Menke, and then he shared how this uplifted him to keep doing his work.
“I am my own worst enemy,” Menke said. “Am I doing everything that I could be doing to make this the best place it can be for the people we serve?
“It was kind of a neat surprise to put things into perspective. Maybe you are doing a good job after all,” he said of himself. Menke said he appreciated all his partners for their gratitude.
