The halls of Chinook Enterprises are lined with big, vibrant photos showing the smiling faces of success. The success that came because someone simply gave another person a chance.
"They are contributing to their own self-interest, and they're seeing their own destiny," said Chinook CEO Rob Martin. "That's just really, really important."
Chinook is a Mount Vernon manufacturing business whose mission is to employ the disabled. About 25 percent of the workers have a disability.
They're people like Production Administration Assistant David Wilder, who has worked at Chinook for 20 years.
"You have a reason to get up in the morning. You have a goal to accomplish," said Wilder. "You not only help yourself, but you help others."
Over the past 40 years, Chinook has gotten more than 1,000 people with disabilities steady work, both at its aerospace manufacturing plant and landscaping branch.
Martin founded Chinook and is retiring after four decades. Martin says he dedicated his life to this cause because he just had to.
"You just get inspired and decide this is what you're gonna do,” said Martin. “I was led here. I was led."
Martin was led by the memory of his father who suffered a stroke and lost the use of his dominant arm. He remembers his proud father, once a civil engineer for the City of Seattle, taking work shining shoes to feed his family.
"He was angry, as anybody would be, and that came out in many different ways. He was humiliated," said Martin. "It changed me. It really did. I just said there has got to be a better way to do this."
Martin found that better way, not only by hiring the disabled at his business but by helping place them in jobs across the community. From Walmart workers to hardware store employees, Martin estimates he has helped pump at least $2 million into the local economy over the past four decades.
With a solid foundation built, Martin says it's time to turn operations over to new generation.
After a national search, Steven Reed, who has a background in the auto industry, has been selected to serve as the new CEO. Reed plans to continue and build on the work of his predecessor.
It is a life's work built on the understanding that no one should suffer the indignities Martin's father did.
And everyone should have the simple chance to succeed.
"We're changing people's lives, moving people forward," said Martin. "We're hopefully taking them from where they are to a place that's better."