Determination leads to dream job working for the Seahawks

If you're looking for new swag at Lumen Field, you can find it at the team store in section 140, with help from Eugene Berry. Eugene works at games for both the Seattle Sounders and the Seahawks.

"I love football," Eugene said. "I was raised around it, and this is where I've always wanted to be. There was no other thing I wanted."

But that dream was complicated by the fact that Eugene uses a wheelchair to get around.

He grew up coming to games with his grandparents, who were season ticket holders.

The first time he was old enough to vote, he cast a ballot to approve funding for what is now Lumen Field. He also volunteered on a committee to help make sure the stadium was accessible to wheelchairs.

"I take this very seriously," Eugene said. "I love being here. This is my home away from home."

Getting his job took more than Eugene's dream. He got help from Northwest Center - a local agency that works for disability inclusion, in part through job placement.

They paired Eugene with employment consultant Abel Kellam, who starts each meeting with a new client asking about their dream job. "Just so we know," Kellam said. "That way we can kind of relate whatever we do going forward to that dream job status. " But he acknowledged, "it’s hard. It's difficult to have their dream job."

But Kellam didn't write Eugene's dream off. "We're really focused on what people want, not what we think they should do, not what we believe their abilities are strongest in. At Northwest Center, you know, we really do believe in letting the client lead the search. And that's what I was doing," Kellam said.

He told Eugene to reach out to anyone he knew at the Seahawks.

And that's how Mike Flood got involved.

Flood is the Seahawks Vice President of Outreach and External Affairs. He knew Eugene's grandparents when they were season ticket holders, and he worked with Eugene on the stadium accessibility.

Flood recognized a valuable employee.

"He has both dedication and determination, and he's very precise on how he does things," Flood said. "When he is looking to get here on weekends or at night games, it's not easy, but he figures it out; even if he has to take a taxi up, he'll be here. So that kind of person who can do the job and is reliable, that's what you want."

It's more than a job for Eugene. It's a calling.

"When he finally got on here, and I saw how happy he was to do it, I didn't know it was going to mean that much to him," Flood said. "But when he got on here, and I could see that he felt fulfilled, it was a great feeling for me, too."

When people buy merch, it's to represent a team they love and support.

Eugene knows the feeling. "I love every minute of it," he said.

Northwest Center, which helped Eugene with his job placement, was founded in 1965 by a group of Seattle mothers who changed laws that were keeping their children with disabilities out of schools.

They took their mission to lawmakers in both the state of Washington and to Washington, D.C.

To learn more about the empowerment work still going on today, visit Northwest Center's website.