Carlos Espindola better known as (Charlie) has been with Kendal North for over 5 ½ years. Born in Mexico City moved to Oregon 8 years ago looking for better opportunities for his family. Charlie smiles as he recollects his first day at Kendal North - he was sent by a local temp agency to help us in production during a Valentine's holiday - he was among 50 seasonal employees. Charlie remembers when the season ended the production supervisor thanked all the seasonal employees and informed them of their final day. Miguel Flores, the production manager approached Charlie privately and told him that he had seen him work and noticed how well he had adapted to the group so quickly and asked him if he was interested in applying for a building maintenance position we had open. Charlie expressed satisfaction that his hard work had been recognized and enthusiasm to be invited to become a part of Kendal North. The following are excerpts from the nominations received "works very hard to keep building clean". Charlie is well liked by everyone in the facility; Keith and Kenny know him by name. You can catch Charlie setting up tables and dessert for the monthly celebrations, providing first aid to injured coworkers, shopping for building materials or promptly responding to issues that arise. Charlie keeps the building clean and organized - makes our environment friendly. Charlie Rocks!

Employees at Monterey Bay Bouquet nominated Oscar Herrera-Garcia as the outstanding employee.

Oscar was born and raised in Jalisco and has been in California since 1997. He comes from a family of seven children, he has five sisters and one brother with Oscar being near the middle.

Prior to coming to MBB, Oscar worked at Berry Bowl in Watsonville.

Oscar has been with MBB since February of 1998 where he started in the shipping/pulling department. He was transferred to production as a feeder and was promoted to supervisor in April of 2008. He was in charge of the night shift during the mother's day holiday and did a great job. Oscar says he is very happy working at MBB and enjoys the challenges his new role offers.

Oscar's co-workers consider him to be a very respectful leader with excellent communication skills. He is always fair and an admirable worker with a great attitude. These qualities will certainly help him in any future endeavors.

Petra Arce was born and raised in Michoacán, Mexico with her nine siblings. She married in Mexico and without delay decided to move to the United States with goals for a brighter future. Petra became a stay at home mother with four children and enjoyed those precious years. She knew once her children were older it was her opportunity to gain a new experience in a different field.

Her search led her to our path and she started working with Kendal in 1996. At the time she started with Kendal, the Production Department only had 35 employees and the office was at a smaller location. She started as an assistant arrangement maker and moved on to multiple positions with Kendal. She held other positions such as quality control and bouquet runner. Her multi-tasking ability led her to learn the Production Department from top to bottom and was able to witness the growth of the company. Kendal moved to a larger facility and she willingly took on more responsibilities. She has always been open to learning new skills and volunteered to learn how to teach others to make bouquets. Petra was presented with a new computer system to process the orders and she did not hesitate to take on the task to quickly learn and implement the new system in the production line. Her hard work and positive attitude was not overlooked and she was promoted in 2003 to be a lead on our largest production line.

Petra loves the environment at Kendal and she is proud to say that the experience she gained has been above and beyond, and she looks forward to growing alongside the company. Her peers enjoy working with her and see her as a role model. She said looking back the last 12 years, she has a lot of great memories with the organization. Petra witnessed all the positive changes within the company and herself throughout her time here. With Kendal being her first job, Petra could not have imagined to have come this far with the organization. The knowledge Petra has gained about the organization and the flower industry is truly amazing. We are honored to have her on board and we look forward to her continued positive growth.