Published: August 23, 2009 12:06 am      

Loyal employees reach milestones at Roy Rogers

Restaurant values Sonya Carter, Mike Twigg

CUMBERLAND — Mike Twigg sometimes gets a little messy with the chicken.

Wearing plastic gloves, a blue apron and cap, he demonstrated last week in the kitchen at Roy Rogers, where he’s worked for 20 years.

“Dip,” said Twigg, 46, dipping an imaginary piece of the chicken in a vat of batter.

“Bread,” he said, tossing it in flour.

“Four across here,” he said, showing how he lays pieces on a tray. “Four here.”

At the end of an eight-hour shift, it’s not uncommon for Twigg to be half-covered in flour.

“Some days he looks like he dipped and floured himself,” teased Twigg’s sister, Sherry Chandler, of Cumberland.

Hired through Horizon Goodwill Industries in 1989, Twigg, who has cerebral palsy and lupus, has been dipping and breading for two decades now, endearing himself to pretty much everyone who crosses his path.

A co-worker, Sonya Carter, also hired through Goodwill, celebrates her 15th anniversary with Roy Rogers this year.

Both are valued employees who make a difference, said general manager Roxanne Yutzy.

“(Mike) sweeps the floor, wipes tables, makes biscuits,” Yutzy said of Twigg, who works about 20 hours a week. “He passes out mints to all the customers. He loves talking to the customers.”

Carter, 41, also passes out mints and refills drinks, Yutzy said. She works most of her 10 hours a week in the dining area, filling the “fixin’s bar” with sliced tomatoes and onions, pickles and other condiments and cleaning up.

“I do tables and floors,” said Carter, who lives with her mother in Cumberland. “Sometimes I help in the back.”

“You do the ledges and the windows,” Yutzy said.

“I do the mints and the drinks,” Carter said.

“Sometimes she gets a tip,” Yutzy said.

But that’s not the reason Carter keeps clocking in. She likes to work “because it feels good,” and she can help her mother with bills, Carter said.

“I love working in restaurants,” she said.

With about 60 clients in its day program, Horizon Goodwill provides job training for adults with developmental disabilities at its 75,000-square-foot headquarters in the Upper Potomac Industrial Park. The agency’s mission is to provide work opportunities for clients, boosting their self-esteem and independence and giving them a chance to earn a paycheck.

Both Twigg and Davis will earn cash awards from Roy Rogers for their long-term employment, Yutzy said.

Twigg, who likes drawing blueprints of buildings and dreams of learning to drive a small bus, doesn’t plan on quitting his day job any time soon.

“I’m going to stay until it’s time for me to retire,” he said.

Contact Kristin Harty at kharty@times-news.com