DECATUR, ILL. (WAND) - Macon Resources is celebrating 40 years of hard work and dedication.
MRI produces millions of license plates for the entire state of Illinois.
"We're over five million plates now so it's really grown. Which on average is about 24,000 plates a day have to come to our facility," said Ryan Raleigh, Chief Operating Officer at MRI.
Secretary of State, Alexi Giannoulias, marked the milestone with a trip to MRI. Giannoulias was sworn in to office in 2023 when he took over from long-serving Secretary Jesse White.
"You saw the pride individuals have. The teamwork, the beautiful facility that was created. This is about creating jobs, partnerships, hopes and opportunities," said Secretary Giannoulias.
Almost 60% of MRI's workforce includes people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
"Everybody needs services in some way. And we're definitely filling that gap of providing services for individuals with disabilities. And we do it to what they want, it's not about what we want it's about what they want," said Raleigh.
MRI serves around 800 people with disabilities every year. The facility provides services and programs for the community. Secretary Giannoulias seeks to raise awareness during National Developmental Disability Awareness Month and hopes to spread programs like this across the nation.
"I think it's great. I think obviously we would encourage anybody who's looking to do something like this come and do a tour to see how we're doing this. Because it can work and it can happen," said Raleigh.
Illinois is one of two states where plates are not produced by prison inmates, making this production model one of a kind in the country. Secretary Giannoulias describes this as not only the very best of Illinois, but the very best of humanity.
He says will make services more modern such as digital drivers licenses, IDs, car titles and more during his time in office.
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