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Steve Hennessey, 2003 Laura A. Marco Award
Federal Contracts Achiever of the Year
Steve Hennessey doesn't have childhood memories of his parents. When he was an infant, his father was killed and his mother suffered from a mental illness. Unable to care for her children, Steve's siblings were put-up for adoption, and he was placed in the Martin Luther Home in Beatrice, Nebraska.
Throughout his childhood, Steve questioned why he was not adopted like his siblings. He did not understand that at the time, there was no one wanting a little boy with multiple disabilities. His struggle to understand brought on a lifetime of worry and self-rejection.
At age seven, Steve found solace participating in the Special Olympics. Competing became a primary focus allowing this little boy to feel important for the first time in his life.
In 1979, when Steve we twenty, he began working at Goodwill as a sorter, working-off a conveyor belt. In 1980, Steve was transferred to Goodwill's outbound work site at the Lincoln Denney Federal Building as a custodian. Steve's determination to remain self-sufficient helped him move into his own apartment and progress from a part-time shift to his current full-time day position.
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