Eric Medeiros, class of 1983, worked while in high school. He completed his schoolwork, but having afterschool carpentry jobs, he was not able to be involved in sports, clubs, and other afterschool activities. He enjoyed learning carpentry in the Building Trades program with Kevin Carr, learning by using both his hands and brain, where he felt confident. It made a big difference for this young man, who planned to work in carpentry after high school.
As he approached graduation, Eric realized that there were a lot of carpenters on our Island, and that he needed an opportunity to work full-time, year-round, developing a trade. He was hired by Denny Alley at P & L Appliances where, at first, he did only deliveries, but after completion of courses in appliance repair, he was able to secure full-time work that fall. My mouth fell open as he described how he commuted to Providence three nights a week after work, in order to take necessary courses in repairing appliances. He kept learning on the job using his ability, his skill, and his knowledge.
However, that winter, he was laid off due to no available work. Luckily, being an entrepreneur — and truly that’s what Eric is, as you will see — he was urged by George Goulart at the appliance store Mid-Cape to start his own repair business; George said he would send him all the repair work that Eric could handle. What a gift this was for the young man, and it worked for the next 11 years, until George retired. By now, Eric was married to Karen Olsen, and he decided to get his own business, at the Radio Shack building, selling Maytag appliances. He sold and repaired appliances, and his company expanded to 13 employees. However, after a few years, he couldn’t get enough trained help to keep the business going at such a large scale, so he decided to downsize to the small store that he has now run for more than 20 years. He told me that it was very hard to cut back, because he truly had the dream of expanding, but it wasn’t practical for him to do so.
Eric is truly an entrepreneur who didn’t get the opportunity to achieve a business degree, but took advantage of every opportunity, worked hard, and developed a successful business. Kudos to you, Eric — you serve our Island well!
Marge Harris was a teacher at MVRHS for 27 years. You can contact her at margeharris@comcast.net. This column appears twice a month.