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Bob has really been the leader that's helped Material Return get started. He's somebody that grew up in Burke County, started to work when he was 16 in a sawmill. What's so neat about Bob's story is, you know, Bob is still working in manufacturing. In fact, he's working in these same plants where his uncle and his dad used to work. But now he's an owner of that plant, he has a say in what's going to happen at that facility, and he's really one of the leaders. So Bob, for me really represents why I come to work every day. We call ourselves long-haul people, we're in this for the long haul. This isn't just a project of six months. This is a project of generations. Right now, there's 27,000 workers working in the textile industry. We would love to see half of those workers engaged in some type of enterprise or economic opportunity that we're creating through our ecosystem. My hope is not just southern Appalachia, but all over. That there's more say, there's more wealth that can be rooted, there's less extraction, and there's really just a more thriving working class.
Bob 一直就是那位帮助启动“材料回流”的领导者。他成长于伯克县,16 岁时就在锯木厂开始了工作。Bob 的故事之所以特别,你知道吗,他依然工作在制造业中。事实上,他就是在以前他叔叔和他父亲曾经工作的那些工厂里工作。但现在他拥有那家工厂的所有权,对该设施的未来发展有发言权,他确实是真正的领导者之一。所以,Bob 对我而言,代表了每天我来到工作的动力。我们称自己为“长期耕耘者”,我们是为长远而做的。这不仅仅是一个六个月的项目。这是一个几代人的项目。目前,有 27,000 名工人在纺织行业工作。我们希望看到其中一半的工人参与到我们通过生态系统所创造的一些企业或经济机会中。我的希望不仅局限于南方阿巴拉契亚地区,而是遍布世界各地。希望那里有更多话语权,有更多财富可以扎根,减少资源抽取,并真正拥有一个更繁荣的工人阶级。