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Danny Ockenhouse
Danny Ockenhouse is a member of the East Stroudsburg Corps and often stands kettles during the Christmas season.
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Longtime Greeter At East Stroudsburg Wal-Mart Shown The Door By Company
If you walked into the East Stroudsburg Wal-Mart, you were likely to see Danny Ockenhouse smiling as he welcomed you to the store. Confined to a motorized wheelchair, it didn’t stop him from directing shoppers to product areas or checking receipts of those leaving.
But not anymore. After almost 21 years of employment, Ockenhouse is gone.
The store eliminated his job in what appears to be a chainwide mandate that replaces greeters with hosts who have different responsibilities where the risks for theft, safety and security are higher. Because of Ockenhouse’s limitations, his job opportunities are slimmer than most.
“I just want my job back, and I want to be appreciated,” Ockenhouse, 41, said, with tears in his eyes. “The customers appreciate me.”
Wal-Mart offered and placed all the other greeters with jobs in the store, but it wouldn’t give one to Ockenhouse, he said.
“I can do parts of a lot of jobs, but they said I have to be able to lift 50 pounds, put groceries in the back of people’s cars,” Ockenhouse said.
Wal-Mart spokesman Kory Lundberg confirmed the 50-pound requirement. He said that after an analysis of data, the chain decided that in stores having greater theft and security issues, it would replace greeters with customer hosts.
The new position also includes checking receipts and keeping the front of the store tidy.
Lundberg said the stores try to find operations in other areas and have successfully placed greeters who lost their jobs. That includes applying for the customer host job. Although Ockenhouse has done most of those functions, he does them unofficially, Lundberg said.
“Being in a wheelchair doesn’t preclude someone from being a host,” Lundberg said.
Lundberg said the company is moving displaced greeters in jobs as cashiers, fitting room attendants and shelf stockers.
Friends came to his defense in a growing Facebook uprising.
“I have known Danny for the better part of 12 years and have never met a more dedicated, friendly, committed, dependable associate,” former store manager Keith Sturges said. “He has even parked his chair and rested overnight in the building as to make sure he makes it to work. This guy lives and breathes for his job and his store.”
His friend Katrina Richards has also known him forever, she said.
“He’s amazing. He’s an avid church goer, does the March of Dimes and he helps out as much he can with his limited ability to get around,” Richards said.
She’s seen him around the store lately, instead of at the front of the store, where she said the store has other people checking receipts.
“He’s able to take people around to the areas of the store where they need to be,” Richards said.
Allison Giambrone, another friend of Danny’s, said he’d make fun of her for not being able to get down from the mountain during bad weather even though he could make it to Wal-Mart from his East Stroudsburg home.
“I’m in a wheelchair, too,” she said. “He worked very well for that Wal-Mart store for many years. He wouldn’t call out for snowstorms. For them to do this to him is not right.”
Pocono Record, July 9, 2016
A Community Protests Walmart For Firing A Disabled Employee Who Worked There For 20 Years
A Walmart location in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania is under fire after dismissing Danny Ockenhouse, a 41-year-old man with disabilities who had worked at the store as a greeter for over 20 years. Ockenhouse was pushed out of the company by a restructuring program called “More at the Door,” which he says would have required him to complete tasks he is physically unable to do.
Ockenhouse lives with cerebral palsy, a movement disorder that confines him to a wheelchair. “I can do parts of a lot of jobs, but they said I have to be able to lift 50 pounds, put groceries in the back of people’s cars,” he told the Pocono Record. According to Ockenhouse, the other, able-bodied greeters at his location were offered different job placements within the store.
Over the weekend, a crowd of about 100 gathered to protest Ockenhouse’s firing, holding signs with messages like “Give Danny His Job Back,” “We Support Danny,” and “Shop K-Mart.” Ockenhouse was also in attendance, telling local news channel WNEP16, “[My supervisor] told me about three weeks ago that he had to find something for me to do. Everything I wanted to do, he said I couldn’t because there was some degree of lifting.”
Organizers for Ockenhouse plan to protest outside of Walmart until he gets his job back. A Change.org petition advocating for his re-hiring currently has over 5,500 signatures. Here’s more of Ockenhouse’s story, courtesy of a WNEP16 news clip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FH41Q0EbVY
Uproxx, July 11, 2016
Former Walmart Greeter Danny Ockenhouse Hired By XHamster
Danny Ockenhouse, a disabled man from East Stroudsburg, Penn. who was recently fired from a job as a greeter at Walmart, has accepted a job with XHamster.com, according to a representative for the site. After Ockenhouse was fired, dozens of Pennsylvania residents protested his dismissal.
Ockenhouse, who suffers from cerebral palsy, is quoted as saying, “First, I want to thank everyone for all your support. When I was let go from Walmart, I was absolutely devastated. I even offered to run the phones, but management told me that that wasn’t an open position. I offered to do everything. I am so thankful to XHamster for offering me this opportunity.”
Ockenhouse, according to an XHamster spokesperson, will be able to telecommute from East Stroudsburg and will not need to relocate for his new position.
XHamster is quoted as saying, “We were heartbroken when we heard Danny’s story. He is a hard worker who is never late for work, never calls in sick and always shows up with a smile on his face. This is the kind of man that we want as part of the XHamster family. Danny will now have the comfort of working from home on a variety of tasks and in a number of different areas of our company. We are proud to celebrate Danny as the newest member of the XHamster family.”
xbiz.com, July 11, 2016
Salvation Army Volunteerism Declines, Some Bell Ringers Earn Pay
Danny Ockenhouse sits outside the door at Walmart in East Stroudsburg in his motorized wheelchair and rings the bell. He’s greeting shoppers as they drop donations in the iconic red kettle for the Salvation Army’s annual campaign.
“I ring bells and yank chains and have fun,“ he said. “I do more work getting ready for work than I do at work.”
Since 1900, people have traditionally volunteered for the job. But the Salvation Army started paying some bell ringers in 2021.
Major John Wheeler is commanding officer at the Salvation Army East Stroudsburg corps.
“Most of our kettles are manned by paid people. If we don't have volunteers, then we have to pay people to cover those spots,” he said.
He explains people don’t commit to volunteering as much as they used to.
“In the old days, people used to volunteer regularly, specifically Salvation Army church members would get involved. Most Salvation Army church members today have full-time jobs and are unable to volunteer as much time on the kettles,” he said. “And then it's just a state of American society today, volunteering has changed quite a bit. And regular continual volunteer support is different than it used to be in the past. So we just pay people to cover our kettles.”
The Salvation Army relies on cash collected during the red kettle campaign to fund year-long programming. Since 2022, the Eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware division reported an 11% decrease in volunteerism and as a result, a 15% decrease in funds raised in 2022.
Danny considers himself lucky to have the gig. He lost his job in 2016 when his employer changed the job requirements. Danny has cerebral palsy, his hands are stiff, and his vision is impaired.
He was a greeter at this very Walmart, and now he’s at the same location - just outside the door - joking with passersby and the regulars who light up when they see him.
“I gotta be glad that I'm not suffering. Yes, I'm in a chair. But I'm not suffering,” Danny said. “So I figured why can't I get out there and get into mischief? You know, actually do something good.”
And no matter the weather, he commutes about two miles in his motorized chair. For about six weeks every year, for more than 10 years, Danny has been doing this.
In East Stroudsburg, the Salvation Army has five regular volunteers and seven paid employees who man three locations in the area.
WVIA, December 8, 2023