Mentorship, Spirituality, and Family Have Shaped Sharon Crace’s Approach to Work
For 32 years Sharon Crace has been a part of the ASW family. For 22 of those years, she has served as a Production Scheduler, making sure that the proper resources are available to meet client needs. Sharon loves working at ASW because of the people—co-workers, management, and customers.
Sharon was born and raised in Akron and attended East High. Sharon has a daughter, Stephanie, and a son, Brian. After Brian’s birth, Sharon decided to re-enter the workforce. She joined ASW via a temp agency, when our polymer packaging services were under the name Gilchrist Polymer Center. She remembers seeing workers, back then, breaking ground for the two buildings that comprise ASW’s current headquarters.
Sharon credits several mentors for helping her in her career, including Linda McCracken who was an Office Manager at ASW. She also acknowledges the help and guidance provided by Nick Mihiylov and Terry Schenkenberger and believes her mentors helped her learn how to work well with her colleagues, management, and customers.
Sharon admires ASW CEO André Thornton, who she calls “an engaging businessman.” She appreciates that he is a man of faith. Her faith is very important to Sharon and her spirituality is directly linked to the ways in which she approaches her job.
To Sharon, ASW is family. She genuinely enjoys the people with whom she interacts. Over the years Sharon has been determined to do a good job for ASW customers. She has had a lot of close relationships with customers and many of the same customers she started with are still with ASW because of the close relationships Sharon and other ASW associates have developed with them.
Sharon is thankful for each of the relationships she has fostered in the workplace. She has found support and solace at ASW. Two years ago she lost her father and 7 months ago her husband. Her coworkers have been there for her in times of need, and she has tried to do the same for them. Even customers have reached out, providing words of comfort.
Sharon plans to retire early next year to spend more time with her family, including Stephanie’s daughter Juliet (whom Stephanie shares with husband Nate). Sharon has been training her replacement, Jennifer Gannon, and is confident that Jennifer shares the same job qualities and commitment to customers. It is no surprise that leaving her customers in good hands is of upmost importance.