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Wilson Residential Services Inc. is a
company that provides daily residential
care to
mentally challenged people. It was
formed back in 1990, but it has a
history all the way back to the late
1960's.
In the begining the previous owner of
the company took a mentally challenged
person out of a state mental hospital
and let him live in his home. Several
years later the owner of the company had
over 20
mentally challenged people living in the
same home, which by the way only had 5 bedrooms to share with all 20 people. When the local and state government agencies that were providing funding to
help operate the home
came in and looked around at what was
going on they realized that 20 people
living in one home was just too many.
They decided to take most of the people
out of the home, and put them in other
homes. They let eight of the 20 people
stay in the home with the owner of the company. In the early 1980's Mr. David Wilson went to work for the individual who owned the company, which was basically called a group home. David Wilson was hired to help plan daily activities for the eight people that were living in the home at that time. Then in 1990 the owner of the company was in poor health, and could no
longer over see the daily operations of
the group home. So he asked David Wilson
if he would like to purchase the whole
company from him.
David Wilson agreed to buy the company,
and then he decided to bring his brother
Larry Wilson in as a partner. Larry
Wilson had been working in the same type
of business for over 15 years, and had
alot of knowledge about how this type of
business should be operated. The first
important business mater that the Wilson
brothers faced was to try, and make the
general public aware of the fact that
even though the eight people living in
the home were not as gifted as some
people are, they were still people and
deserved to be treated just the same as
you or I expect to be treated. They went
out on the front lawn of the big old 5 bedroom house, and tore down the large painted sign that announced to every one walking down the street that this was a "Group Home". David Wilson came up with the company
name of Wilson Residential Services Inc.
trying to get as far away from the term
"Group Home" as he could. The next order
of business for the Wilson brothers came
after looking over the companies
financial records for afew hours. They
both decided that it might be an
advantage to hire a full time bookkeeper
in order to try and clear up some of the
mistakes that had been made by the
previous owner, and since neither one of
the Wilson brothers were comforable with
the idea of hiring someone off the
street they decided to employ Larry's
wife at the time, Anita Wilson. Anita had actually gone to school and earned an accounting degree, but after working in the field a short time decided that she wasn't happy with her career choice and had moved on to another career at the time. After Anita agreed to just help out for awhile until things got straightened around they all three set out to get the company back in order, and on the road to success.
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It was only after David Wilson agreed to
purchase the business did he realize
what a financial mess the company was
in. It tooks years to get all of the
mess cleaned up.
Since we started the company back in
1990 we have moved all eight of the
individuals out of that big old 5
bedroom house, and have placed them
into two much nicer homes, so that they
can live in the most normalized way as
possible.
We are very proud of the fact that three
of the eight original individuals that
we started out with have over time been
able to move out on their own into the
community, with just a little daily
assistance from us.
What started out with one home, and 8
people over the years has grown to 27
individuals in serveral different
locations throughout Stark County Ohio.
I don't think that any of the Wilson's
would dare pass up the chance to mention
the fact that In 1997 Wilson Residential
Services Inc. won an award for
"Residential Provider Of The Year" given
out by the Ohio Provider Resource
Association (OPRA). That award has
become our proof that even though we
might have made some mistakes along the
way. We must be doing something right.
:-)
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Smile everyone, it's picture time !!!
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Standing up from left to right are David Wilson, Lester, John, Paul, Mike, Jeff, Max,
and Larry Wilson.
Sitting down from left to right are Charlie, Richard, Gordon, and John.
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There's Max out in front as usual ! Then Gordon, Paul, Lester, John, Mike, Richard,
John, Charlie and hiding way back there is Jeff.
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The photos above are from vacation trips
that we have taken over the years. The
top photo was taken when we went to
Niagra Falls Canada, and the bottom
photo was taken when we traveled to
Gettysberg Pennsylvania. The guys have
also traveled to the Baseball Hall of
Fame in New York, DollyWood Amusement
Park in Tennesse, We got to take them to see the Great Smokey Mountains in North Carolina one year. They've all gotten to walk on the Board Walk in Alantic City. They have also seen the Liberty bell, and the battle ships in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Oh and let's not forget to mention the Cleveland Indians Baseball games or the Massillon Tiger's High School football games that they have gotten to attend over the years. After all it's just like we said before, they enjoy sports just as much as another red blooded American male. It is a dream of the Wilson members that hopefully sometime in the near future we will be able to get them all to Disney World in Florida, since that is the one place where none of them have ever gotten to go before.
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Our daily goal is to provide the best
possible care to all of our individuals.
Meeting their daily living requirements
and teaching them new skills, so that they all become more productive citizens.
Like we were talking about in the part about the vacation trips,one of our long range goals is to try and take them all on a trip to Disney World sometime in the near future. Since the company does not have the funding resources to make this trip possible without help from outside sources we decided to set up an activity fund for just that purpose. It you feel that you would
like to make a donation in order to help
us reach our goal of Five Thousand dollars for our trip to Disney World,
Our non profit tax identification number is 34-1865283 listed as "WRS Sports and activites Booster Club" you may send your tax deductable donation to:
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Wilson Residential Services Inc.
P.O. Box 828
Massillon Ohio 44648-0828
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