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SALT LAKE CITY — Homeless just a few weeks ago, and now a full-time employee: Here's a happy update on a man KSL News recently profiled.
Wes Gledhill never gave up in his efforts to provide for his young family. A couple weeks ago, he and his family were homeless.
He spent his days standing at the bottom of an I-15 off-ramp with a cardboard sign. But when he ran up to a car window, he was not getting a handout, he was handing out his resume. He did this in the bitter cold for hours each day.
Well, it all paid off! Now Gledhill spends his days at work. He's now working full time in the warehouse of eReplacementparts.com in Midvale.
"It's very fulfilling," he said. "I love having that alarm clock go off at 7 o'clock in the morning; that feeling of, just go to work!"
Gledhill's resume indicated that he had worked at shipping- and receiving-type jobs in the past. That caught the eye of his new employers, who are adding staff for the spring. More than that, though, they were really impressed with Wes's unorthodox approach of standing at the off-ramp.
Michael Bruderer, with eReplacementparts.com, said, "That really showed a lot of character to me and I thought, that's the kind of person I want working for me."
As the name suggests, eReplacementparts.com is a company that sells all sorts of items that will keep your gadgets operating.
"So if somebody's drill breaks, their washer or dryer, their blender, lawnmower, weed-wacker, we sell replacement parts for the do-it-yourselfer," Bruderer said.
All those parts have to be organized in the warehouse to be ready for shipping, which is where Gledhill and his co-workers come in.
"Yes, it's where I'm the best at and where I'm stationed at now, and doing really well at (it)," he said.
When we first met Gledhill under the freeway, he and his fiancée and young daughter were living in the homeless shelter. They're in an apartment now and things are looking up, which is why he was out there in the cold in the first place — he said he wanted to have a regular lifestyle.
"Feels great, knowing that I'm going to get a paycheck now," he said.
That first paycheck comes Friday.
