We have a lot of awesome people working for L.E. Cooke Co and last Sunday I got to see a number of them in action outside of work.
Tom Fetch (Sales Manager) volunteers at the Tulare City Library helping tutor others in the Adult Literacy program (Tulare Read). Each year he has also helped do some fund raising by putting on horticultural classes about edible landscaping or pruning. This year he coordinated a much larger project called "Coffeehouse Jam". Musicians and artists were invited from the local area to perform and sell products with a percentage of the funds going to support the Tulare Read program.
Tom is a musician in his spare time (not sure where he finds that since we keep him exceedingly busy). And so is Lloyd Cassidy - another one of our long time sales staff. It is not uncommon to see them plucking strings together in one of their offices (on breaks of course). Both were performing separately in the Coffeehouse Jam. Even Lloyd's daughter performed with a very excellent ensemble from her school as the opening act.
Lloyd 's group called "Messomojo" has been playing together for a number of years. I have heard Lloyd play several times before and in my opinion, I rank his guitar skills up with the best of them (Carlos Santana comes to mind). This Sunday's performance displayed his wide range of styles and pleased the crowd.
Lloyd Cassidy with one of several guitars
Tom played last with his unique style (my musical illiteracy jumps out here - something "Flamingo" comes to mind). It was easy listening and comforting - first time I had heard him play. I liked it and bought a CD. I'll put a plug in for his new music CD which you can taste here: Slugfingers (Love the graphics!)
Tom Fetch on one of his several guitars
I think what impressed me most was there was a number of sales staff and office staff that came to the performances and stayed to the very end. Afterwards they all pitched in to help disassemble and put everything away leaving everything spotless. It was a long day for everyone and all happily volunteered. I truly get to work with special people and I am blessed by them.
Ron Ludekens 9-27-2011