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Sirkin Center

Join Us for LightHouse Day on June 27

05/29/2024 LightHouse Staff Leave a comment

It’s June, and that means it’s time to celebrate LightHouse! As a multifaceted non-profit (and one of the oldest of its kind in the whole state, we might add!) LightHouse has its hands in many pies. From our Little Learners, to Accessible User Experience consulting, to the production of environmentally safe cleaning products, LightHouse does it all! Much like the iconic 1980’s Transformers cartoon, LightHouse is much more than meets the eye. And with every project, every department, every collaboration and client we serve, LightHouse dedicates our efforts in the promotion of independence, community, and equity created by and with blind and low vision people.

So, on June 27, we invite our community to join us in celebrating the LightHouse enterprise, LightHouse ECO on LightHouse Day! And who knows? We might just be announcing some very exciting news! (Wink, wink!)

What: LightHouse Day 2024
When: Thursday, June 27, 2024, from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Where: The Sirkin Center, 2175 North Loop Rd., Alameda, CA 94502

RSVP to LightHouse Day here.
Or copy and paste the following URL into your web browser: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=aDTgw1XvSEKdrcKhdpCdAPLYxxHCW7RBvSswU9wfgWVUMEJEVTVINFpKWFVYTzlJNzFSQlQwWTczSC4u

More About LightHouse ECO
In early 2020, LightHouse began moving into our new manufacturing facility, the Sirkin Center, in the Bay Farms neighborhood of Alameda. Then, in June of 2020, while most people were quarantined at home, the blind and low vision community came to work, producing eco-friendly cleaning products to help keep our homes and community buildings safe, clean, and prevent the spread of COVID-19. LightHouse was awarded the EPA Safer Choice Award in 2021 and 2022 for the products we produce in house at the Sirkin Center. Additionally, these products have been added to the federal government’s AbilityOne Procurement List, which not only helps to support the production of products and services by LightHouse’s BVI community, but positively impacts the safety and sustainability of our environment as well.

RSVP to LightHouse Day

LightHouse News

Coastline Christian Schools in Alameda Tours Sirkin Center

03/20/2023 Caitlin O'Malior

Friday, March 10, LightHouse CEO Sharon Giovinazzo and COO Brandon Cox welcomed 38 fourth grade students from Coastline Christian Schools in Bay Farms, Alameda for a tour of Sirkin Center.

“We loved welcoming our Alameda neighbors, the Coastline Christian Schools students and staff, to the Sirkin Center. Educating others about the wonderful work LightHouse does by providing opportunity and empowerment to the blind is an important part of our mission,” said Sharon Giovinazzo.

With guide dog Pilot by her side, Sharon led the children around the manufacturing floor of the Sirkin Center facility, as Brandon Cox and Spencer Meyers, LightHouse Industries Technical and Quality Director, explained the different machines and their functions. As cleaning products were being mixed and bottled and tissue rolls cut and packaged, the children learned from our dedicated team of blind and low vision staff at the Sirkin Center how the machinery and tools have been adapted to become accessible and efficient for the employees who operate them.

“It’s not every day we get to be in a manufacturing facility, so that itself was educational and fascinating!” said Coastline Christian Schools Educator, David Chiu. “On another level, the tour helped to further support our understanding surrounding individuals who navigate through life with disabilities. Part of our school’s goal is to cultivate leaders who are compassionate, resilient, and innovative. These are qualities we feel are exemplified in LightHouse and the community it supports/supports it. We hope this field trip will inspire our students as well as give them firsthand interaction with people and topics they study.”

At the Sirkin Center, we manufacture the highest quality eco-friendly cleaning products and tissue packets. Currently, we produce tissue packets which are included in MRE (Meals Ready to Eat) utilized by soldiers and firefighters in the field. We also sell commercial-size sanitary paper rolls for use at camps, schools, and other facilities, and a line of PRIDEClean chemical cleaning products. These products are non-toxic, contain no ammonia and no phosphates and are biodegradable. Producing and promoting the use of eco-friendly products is important to LightHouse Industries, and we enjoy sharing this message with our community. We are also very proud to produce Skilcraft products, which are partnered with the National Industries for the Blind and Ability One Commission – a program that supports LightHouse’s dedication to increasing employment for the blind and visually impaired.

“We are delighted to introduce the students at Coastline Christian Schools to intersection of STEAM career paths and accessibility for the blind community. We hope to inspire young minds to pursue careers in STEAM with a commitment to creating a more universal experience for their peers with disabilities,” comments Brandon Cox.

LightHouse News

Join Us for the Sirkin Center Grand Opening, October 28

09/21/2022 LightHouse Staff

We warmly extend an invitation to the members of our community to attend the Grand Opening of our new Sirkin Center in Alameda. Named after the extremely successful businessman and LightHouse’s most significant donor to date, Donald Sirkin, the Sirkin Center is the entrepreneurial heart of a growing set of social ventures and light manufacturing run by the LightHouse for the Blind.

At the Sirkin Center, we aim to employ individuals who are blind and manufacture the highest quality eco-friendly cleaning products and tissue packets. These products, which serve communities and companies around the world, will provide the utmost utility to clients, and demonstrate our commitment to the employment of people who are blind or have low vision and caliber of our Center.

On Friday, October 28, we invite students, supporters, and local leaders to join the Mayor of Alameda, Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft and LightHouse staff in celebrating the Grand Opening! Tours of our beautiful new facility will be held every 30 minutes from 10 AM to 3 PM. Enjoy exhibits from LightHouse’s Media and Accessible Design Lab (MAD Lab), Adaptations store, Enchanted Hills Camp, and other LightHouse programs throughout the day. The Opening Ceremony will begin at 4 PM with a reception to follow at 5 PM. Light refreshments will be served in the morning, and a wine and beer happy hour will be served during the evening reception. We hope you all can join us in celebrating this momentous occasion! Please see further details below:

What: Sirkin Center Grand Opening
Where: 2175 North Loop Road, Alameda, CA 94502
When: Friday, October 28. Tours will be held from 10 AM – 3 PM, ceremony and reception will be from 4 – 6 PM
Transportation: LightHouse vans will be available for shuttle service from Oakland Coliseum BART station to the Sirkin Center at quarter to the hour, every hour, from 9:45 AM – 3:45 PM.
RSVP: Please register here

For more information, please contact Carin Elam at celam@lighthouse-sf.org or by calling 415-694-7681.

LightHouse News

Pure Bioscience and LightHouse Win FAA Approval

03/24/2021 LightHouse Staff 1 Comment

PURE Bioscience and LightHouse announce the approval and use of PURE Hard Surface sanitizer and disinfectant by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Succeeding a vetting process which took several weeks the FAA approved and announced that PURE Hard Surface was the only antimicrobial on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) List-N Antimicrobial Approved for use Against Corona Virus authorized to be used in the FAA locations: Control Towers, Radar Centers and Regional Control Centers.

The lead scientist on the evaluation committee for the FAA stated:

“The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is one of 16 critical infrastructure sectors, meaning their assets, systems, and networks, whether physical or virtual, are considered so vital to the United States that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security, or national public health or safety. The arrival of COVID-19 presented unique challenges to keeping FAA personnel and equipment safe and functional and planes moving safely through the skies. Rigorous chemical and physical testing identified only one product out of hundreds on EPA List N that met all FAA criteria (no harm to people or equipment, no warning labels or PPE required, no odors, 30-second contact time for human coronavirus, product volume available on demand, rated for Emerging Viral Pathogens, secure supply chain and ease of use. PURE Hard Surface met and exceeded all required criteria.”

Following the initial use rollout of an FAA pilot testing program the FAA is requiring its janitorial service providers for these locations to sanitize daily after cleaning using PURE Hard Surface. This test was successful and to date there are 85 FAA locations that are sanitized with PURE Hard Surface including major airports.

PURE’s Chief Operating Officer and President Tom Y. Lee said, “We are proud that our technology met the needs and requirements for the Federal Aviation Administration’s antimicrobial use. PURE Bioscience is honored to be a part of the overall effort to maintain critical US infrastructure. The chemistry and it’s attributes that lead to approval by the FAA committee are the same that we offer to all our customers for their effective antimicrobial requirements.”

75% of the workforce employed to ship, bottle, and blend Pure Bioscience chemistries is blind or has low vision.

“Our expanding social enterprise at our Sirkin Center will provide dozens of jobs for Bay Area blind employees,” said LightHouse CEO Bryan Bashin. “With the FAA’s large orders we’ll be hiring blind line workers, supervisors, technicians and supporting jobs, at our new Alameda plant. And we’re only beginning”

LightHouse News

Author Mary Roach Visits LightHouse for the Blind [Photos]

07/01/2016 LightHouse Staff 5 Comments

Author Mary Roach’s bibliography looks a bit like a laundry list of corporeal functions – Stiff, Spook, Bonk, and Packing for Mars among them – but Roach’s books have been widely lauded for not only their fascinating and humorous take on very human issues, but for the deep research that goes into them. This month, she released Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War, an exploration of the ins and outs of this integral industry which many Americans would prefer to ignore. And along the journey of her research, she arrived at our doorstep.

Many people don’t know, but the blindness community benefits greatly from legislation which allows agencies with blind workers to bid for federal government contracts. The Javits Wagner O’Day Act provides jobs for several thousand and still is the largest single employer of blind workers across the country.

LightHouse Industries’ Sirkin Center, located in San Leandro, is the light manufacturing division of our organization which serves a very specific and crucial need for the American military and for numerous humanitarian and emergency organizations: toilet paper. Though it’s not something most people consider, individual tissue packets are provided in every Meal Ready to Eat box consumed by every soldier, disaster survivor or relief personnel. For more than 25 years the sole provider of these individual packets has been the LightHouse.

Which brings us back to Mary Roach. In the process of researching Grunt, Roach stumbled upon the LightHouse. There are other LightHouses (unaffiliated) which make airplane parts, clocks, and other goods for the federal government, but she was most interested in our plant for its very real and physical connection to our troops.

As part of the promotion of her book, she asked if she could use these packets of tissue, branded with our name, to give out at book signings and on tour. She dropped into LightHouse Industries last month (Roach lives in Oakland) to get a tour of the Center and pick up some souvenirs. Afterwards, Roach wrote a bit for us about her interest in the LightHouse:

“The MRE toilet paper packets are my guerrilla marketing campaign for the new book, GRUNT: The Curious Science of Humans at War. I plan to leave then in airport bathroom stalls while on book tour, and to give them away to people who buy a book.

Having read the US military specs for toilet paper, I know that this is some quality TP that LightHouse for the Blind is cranking out (at a rate of 1000 per minute!). It was great to meet some of the people who work the operation – Skip and Pablo and David and Mike. Decent toilet paper is important to the morale of fighting men and women overseas, so the work these folks do at the LightHouse plays a more vital role than many might imagine!”

You can pick up Roach’s novel Grunt anywhere books are sold, or if you’re a Bookshare subscriber, read it for free here.

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Sirkin Center

Mission:

At the Sirkin Center, we aim to employ individuals who are blind and manufacture the highest quality eco-friendly cleaning products and tissue packets. These products, which serve communities and companies around the world, will provide the utmost utility to clients, and demonstrate the strength and caliber of our Center.

History:

Named in honor of Donald Sirkin, an extremely successful businessman in the contractor insurance and bonding industry and the Lighthouse’s most important donor, the Sirkin Center is a budding entrepreneurial heart of a growing set of social ventures and light manufacturing run by the LightHouse for the Blind. Located in Alemeda, California, the Sirkin Center also houses the LightHouse’s industrial employment program.

Acquired in 2012 and newly renovated in 2016, the Sirkin Center provides employment opportunities at competitive wages for people who are blind and visually impaired. Real time, on-the-job training has been a longstanding opportunity at the LightHouse. From the 1920’s to the 40’s, Lighthouse operated Blindcraft, where blind employees crafted baskets, brooms and wicker furniture. That tradition continued and was updated into the 1990s, when federal manufacturing contracts for the blind allowed us to modernize production which continues to this day.

Today, the Sirkin Center provides employment and can help employees get experience to advance their careers in customer service, shipping and receiving, inventory management and light manufacturing.

70% or more of the labor is provided by staff members who are blind or have low vision.

Products

Currently, the Sirkin Center has a light-manufacturing plant making the tissue packets which are included in MRE (Meals Ready to Eat) utilized by soldiers and firefighters in the field. We also sell commercial-size sanitary paper rolls for use at camps, schools and other facilities, and a line of PRIDEClean chemical cleaning products.

PRIDECLEAN products are non-toxic, green cleaning products used at private and public facilities around the country. The products are non-toxic, contain no ammonia and no phosphates, are biodegradable and contain zero to low VOCs.

LHI also produces Skilcraft products partnered with the National Industries for the Blind and Ability One Commission.

Contact:

If you are interested in renting space or employment opportunities and products of the Sirkin Center, located at 2175 North Loop Road, Alameda, CA 94502, please contact edi@lighthouse-sf.org or 1-833-694-7422.