ENTERPRISE encore
Manners Matter
Kelly Duggan helps teens with etiquette and social skills Lisa Mackinder
Above: Workers prepare some of the nearly 40,000 Christmas trees Wahmhoff Farms Nursery will ship across the U.S. this holiday season. At right: It takes a small army of workers to prepare the 10,000 wreaths Wahmhoff will ship.
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s a certified image manager, coach and consultant, Kelly Duggan has provided many individuals and businesses with training in communication, business etiquette and professional image management. But lately, while working in the Kalamazoo area, she found herself continuously fielding one particular question: “Do you offer services to kids?” People had similar reasons for asking. “They say, ‘I can tell my kids this, but they won’t listen to me,’” says Duggan. So last August, Duggan offered a course called Manners Matter — a seminar to teach teens social skills and manners. The course, held
14 | Encore JANUARY 2016
Brian Powers Brian Powers
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Kelly Duggan, at left, uses a variety of props (on table) to teach kids etiquette and social skills, such as the handshaking practice going on in the background. Duggan was photographed at The Beacon Club.
at Consumers Credit Union and the Epic Bistro, on the downtown Kalamazoo Mall, covered topics such as positive first impressions, dining skills and table manners as well as how to make introductions, shake hands and maintain eye contact. This course wasn’t Duggan’s first experience working with young people. In the past she spoke to a Rotary youth group about dress and professional presence, and Kalamazoo College recruited her for