Visually impaired man inspires others at Miami Goodwill

MIAMI – When you think of Goodwill, you likely think of thrift stores and bargains. But here in South Florida, you might salute what’s happening behind the scenes.

The next time you see the red, white, and blue, there is a good chance it may have been made right here by some very special people.

One machine at a Miami Goodwill warehouse makes 800 stars an hour. But the real stars are those who work there, like 60-year-old Jorge Proenza.

From afar, he works like anyone else on the assembly line — but Jorge is visually impaired.

“(I do) them by feeling it because I can’t see anything,” Proenza said. “I can’t see your faces.”

“Imagine, a blind man who makes flags,” he said.

Using his hands, his senses, and his memory, Proenza feels his way through the process, even cutting materials. Obstacles and challenges aren’t an issue for him.

He’s has been on the line for 18 years. He lost his eyesight to diabetes nine years ago. You might say he feels like the star.

“It’s marvelous,” he said. “I’m a blind man and I can keep working. My pride is through the roof. I can pay my bills and serve humanity.”

He added: “What more could I ask for? I’m blind and I can keep working.”

Proenza said work gives him purpose.

“Work is like therapy. It’s a gift, and I can pay my bills and serve humanity,” he said. “The job, like the flag, symbolizes so many possibilities to someone like myself, Hispanic and disabled, who can’t work just anywhere but I have this job.”

The employees here are also Goodwill clients. They are adults with disabilities. The job gives them a sense of purpose and skill. Even more special than the human touch is where these flags are going.

“These flags are going to the Department of Veterans Affairs,” Goodwill spokesperson Lourdes de la Mata-Little said. “Ultimately, they will be at the military funerals.”

The flags will be draped over the caskets of veterans. They will then be presented to the families, folded into a triangle, and given to the families for keepsake honor and memory of their loved ones.

They make 450 of these very special flags here, each and every day. We watched as every stitch is meticulously inspected.

“If something comes wrong, I take it out and do it perfectly,” worker Iris Perez said.

“Start all over again?” Local 10 News reporter Jeff Weinsier asked.

“All over again,” she said.

Iris Perez has been at Goodwill for more than 16 years.

“It has to be perfect. It is for the soldiers, to honor soldiers,” she said.

Perez knows firsthand how special these stars and stripes are.

“My father was a soldier,” Perez said. “We have his flag. We have his flag.”

That philosophy is shared by all.

“It’s a good job. Very special. Very special,” Agthe Dagrin, who’s worked at Goodwill for more than two decades, said. “You have to make good quality when you make that because it’s special.”

Worker Meghin Rocourt said: “This flag is the highest flag in the world. I think I’m making something very special, so I have to be very meticulous by doing it.”

At the end of the assembly line comes the South Florida seal of approval.

“Every single flag is branded with Goodwill, Goodwill South Florida, and that is our part in such an important flag and such an important mission,” de la Mata-Little said. “So, a salute not only to the flag but to the folks here making them.”

Rocourt concludes: “This flag, I know what price this flag is paying to bring democracy, freedom, and democracy into the world.”