WASHINGTON, DC — March 27, 2019 — Five linen, uniform and facility services company members (operators) and three supplier company members (associates) took home the highest honors from the presentation of annual TRSA awards on March 27 at the Legislative Conference in Washington.
A total of 25 award winners were acknowleged s were presented during the Annual Leadership Awards Dinner at the Dupont Circle Hotel. There were multiple winners in each of the eight competitions with an overall winner topping each. Interest in the TRSA competition was higher than ever as dozens of entries were received and judged by TRSA committees and subject-matter experts.
Most accolades acknowledged team efforts of company staff but some heralded individuals’ outstanding performances on behalf of their companies. Among the overall winners, those individuals were in the Above and Beyond Service competition:
- Brianna Widmark, hospital route service representative, Miller’s Textile Services, Wapakoneta, OH (operator)
- Farley Salmon, healthcare sales director, Sigmatex-Lanier Textiles, Suwanee, GA (associate)
The other six companies that were overall winners:
- Clean Green Innovation: Prudential Overall Supply, Irvine, CA (operator); Ecolab Textile Care, St. Paul, MN (associate)
- Community Service: Huebsch Services, Eau Claire, WI
- Diversity Recognition: Service Linen Supply, Renton, WA
- SafeTRSA Safety Excellence: Quintex Services, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (operator); Kemco Systems Co. LLC, Clearwater, FL (associate)
Four of the aforementioned companies also won in other competitions:
- Ecolab Textile Care, hailed for its hot water filtration in its paramount Clean Green victory, won Above and Beyond recognition thanks to its Support and Application Team’s efforts to support customers’ total plant management.
- Huebsch’s overall community service recognition was based on its work with locally-based charities as well as local branches of regional, national and international organizations; its Above and Beyond accomplishments were reflected in its 99% customer service ratings.
- Prudential’s commitment to chainwide sustainability through Clean Green certification took the designation’s namesake high honor. The company’s Mesa, AZ, cleanroom team’s dedication to near-miss investigations, audits and training won recognition for safety.
- Quintex, which topped the safety competition thanks to numerous measures including electronic documentation, return-to-work practices and wellness, also was recognized for community service, led by its Q-Crew program that incentivizes employees to give their time.
Service Linen Supply’s overall diversity win recognized its hiring of 20% of its employees through organizations supporting kids with special needs, refugees and military veterans. Kemco took a top SafeTRSA honor on the strength of a program that led to 442 consecutive days without an OSHA recordable incident.
Miller’s Textile’s Widmark won praise efforts that led to surgeon satisfaction with the scrub program she manages and her timely problem-solving. Sigmatex-Lanier’s Salmon was hailed for exceptional attention to laundry employees and providing textile inventory in a pinch.
Mission Linen Supply, Santa Barbara, CA, won two awards: Clean Green for its relentless pursuit of water and energy conservation and Above and Beyond for its compassion for employees and customers in natural disasters. Other award-winning operator companies included:
- Bates Troy Healthcare Linen Services, Binghamton, NY, safety, saving a co-worker’s life
- Paris Cos., DuBois, PA, community service, hiring inmates on work release
- Superior Linen Service, Springdale AR, safety, 2,062 days with no lost-time injuries
- UniFirst Corp., Wilmington, MA, diversity, English as a second language classes for employees
- West Michigan Uniform, Holland, MI, community service, monthly campaign to support a different employee or employee’s cause
- White Plains Linen, Peekskill, NY, Clean Green, eliminating nonrenewable energy use and capturing rainwater
Other associate company winners were Colmac Industries Inc., Colville, WA, as David Rinella went Above and Beyond in postponing a vacation to assist a laundry in recovering from a catastrophic fire; Meese Inc., Madison, IN, took a safety award for ergonomically focused products aimed at eliminating a variety of common workplace injuries in laundries; and WSI, Cincinnati, for developing alkali-free wash chemistry.
Also honored in Washington were winners of the Volunteer Leadership Award: individuals active in TRSA who recognize the competitive benefits and overall economic value to their companies of strengthening the industry, including their own competitors. This honor for operators went to Liz Remillong, strategic alliance vice president, Crothall Healthcare, Chesterbrook, PA; for associates, it went to Mike Diedling, retired applications engineering manager, Pellerin Milnor Corp., Kenner, LA.
Posted April 1, 2019
Source: TRSA
