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by Cheryl Myers

How about a little Chunky Monkey or Cherry Garcia as a final palette-pleasing sensation to your Thanksgiving dinner? If you’re so tempted, there’s a place for you at the Ben & Jerry’s PartnerShop in North Columbus. It’s the only such operation in the Southeast and the relationship between Ben & Jerry’s and its franchisee, Goodwill Industries of the Southern Rivers, Inc. is a double scoop made in heaven.

Part of the divineness of this operation comes through people like Breylon Eiland. He spent much of his young life on the wrong track until he enrolled at the Academic Success Center and then worked his way through Goodwill’s hospitality training program. Now, 18-year-old Eiland is a part time scooper at Ben & Jerry’s, and he has learned much more than how to top a sundae.

“From the Goodwill program, I learned the basics of customer service and the hospitality industry,” he said. “I even got my certification in CPR and First Aid!”

Eiland is laying the groundwork for a successful future. He plans to enroll in the construction program at Columbus Technical College (another Goodwill partner) and hopes to start his own company one day. But Eiland is wise beyond his 18 years, having learned about real life the hard way. Shortly after he started working at Ben & Jerry’s, he totaled his car and has to rely on his mother for a ride to and from work. Even though his mother owns her own beauty salon, more often than not, Eiland has to help make ends meet.

“I’m saving a little here and there for another car, but I have to help my mom with the bills,” he said simply. “But it’s okay because I’m learning a lot about life and how to live it — just day by day.”

For all intents and purposes, Breylon Eiland is the man of the house. Not only does he help his mother with her bills through his paycheck from Ben & Jerry’s, but he also helps raise his little sister. The patience he has acquired both from his home life and from behind the counter at Ben & Jerry’s is serving him well.

“As an employee, I have learned not to take things personally. Sometimes people come in and they get upset,” he said. “I understand that they aren’t upset with me but rather with the situation, and I just have to keep on smiling.”

Keith Kennedy hopes Eiland’s smile is contagious. Kennedy is the vice president of Mission and Contract Services for Goodwill Industries of the Southern Rivers, Inc. and he realizes that like any new, high-profile relationship, the one between Goodwill and Ben & Jerry’s is under the proverbial microscope.

“There are a lot of Goodwills paying attention to what’s going on in Columbus,” Kennedy said. “We are what many consider a pilot program.”

The Ben & Jerry’s PartnerShop opened in late spring and provides its employees a combination of training, hospitality knowledge, and networking opportunities. Aside from paychecks for its workers, all proceeds funnel back to Goodwill’s mission to help people find jobs.

According to the Ben & Jerry’s website, the PartnerShop is “A Ben & Jerry’s scoop shop that is independently owned and operated by community-based nonprofit organizations. PartnerShops offer job and entrepreneurial training to youth and young adults that may face barriers to employment.”

Since Goodwill’s focus is finding jobs for those who many would consider unemployable, the Ben & Jerry’s relationship is a perfect fit. But Goodwill has its arms open and its fingers crossed, in hopes of bringing more non-profits and others into the mix. “We’re in the infancy stage of building our partnership with Ben & Jerry’s,” Kennedy said. “We’re looking for community partners that focus on the needs of young people to help build that partnership.

“We’d like to bring together some community service providers to devise the program,” he said. “It would be philanthropic endeavors by Ben & Jerry’s guidelines.” He hopes the mission side of the Ben & Jerry’s PartnerShop will be fully integrated by the middle of 2007.

Kennedy and the Goodwill family are optimistic that the spirit of Thanksgiving finds its way to other area non-profits to help set the philanthropic goal of Ben & Jerry’s in stone, thus ensuring the success of the Columbus PartnerShop. “We’d like the community at large to get behind this program,” Kennedy said. “It has the potential to make a huge difference in the lives of countless young people.”

Young people like Breylon Eiland who, when asked about his favorite aspect of being a scooper at Ben & Jerry’s, said, “It’s the smiles. You always get smiling customers because everybody likes ice cream!”

Well said, Breylon. Well said.