Dawn Enterprises Inc. is celebrating 50 years of serving and supporting Southeast Idaho residents with mental, physical or social disabilities as they live independent and purposeful lives.

Each month, it has been hosting monthly celebrations as a way to “give back, provide awareness and engage our community,” according to its website — where there are more details and videos of these events. For April, Dawn Enterprises is extending an invitation to all interested parties to come and see them in action.

Since it’s a full-service manufacturing facility that does custom work, its Business Solutions Services department starts with a design studio that includes state-of-the-art digital design mapping and designers. This is where it makes the computerized patterns used by the cutting machines.

It has two massive cutting machines, one for cutting deep stacks of fabric. Ever wonder how it’s possible to cut stacks of fabric at once without any slippage? The secret for Dawn Enterprises is in an air system underneath the table that suctions the fabric tight so it’s rigid like a board, making it easy to cut. It also has a camera-based single layer cutting table that free cuts around fabric designs, which can be quite helpful when making mermaid tails.

Be prepared to see smiles and busy workers, making anti-flash hoods for first responders, potato family plushies for the Potato Museum, long johns for federal workers, transportation out-of-order covers, baby clothes, travel bags or mermaid tails. Dawn Enterprises handles a variety of commercial sewing machines, serging machines and a heat stamp tag machine.

The embroidery work and sublimation machines are in a separate building on the other side of the parking lot, a former school district building. It is also included in the tour. A sublimation machine fuses custom designs into fabric, a more durable process than silk-screening designs on top of the fabric.

Quality control happens at the end of each assembly line and then again by those folding and packing the products before they are shipped out from the main building.

Yet another building on the tour is where it houses their Human Services department. Located in the first residential care facility in Idaho to have individual rooms, the building

has been repurposed to facilitate its developmental therapy training. Using the existing kitchen and group rooms, it trains adults with a spectrum of disabilities in social interaction skills, domestic skills, time management, money management, meal planning and personal health care. Be prepared, you might encounter a boisterously fun game in process.

Most of the individual dorm-like rooms have been converted to offices, from which employees coordinate the other aspects of Dawn Enterprises’ Human Services: support for individuals with disabilities living independently; coordinating its four 24-hour care homes for those that need more assistance; and job development support, either for in-house work opportunities or for locally hired individuals, as they adjust to new situations and work skills.

Besides providing work for those that have disabilities, Dawn Enterprises has also been an employment springboard for hundreds of youth and adults who have gone on to education and careers in similar fields or facilities.

In fact, Executive Director Donna Butler was one of those employees. She first experienced Dawn Enterprises in a summer youth program in 1978. Though she left for periods of time for schooling, working in residential facilities and eventually managing Assisted Living Concepts homes throughout Idaho, she missed Dawn Enterprises too much and returned for good in 1997.

Butler has a special invitation for all former employees: “Come see what it’s like now.” She also hopes to compile stories of the first 50 years, and encourages employees, past and present, to share their memories.

Other upcoming public celebrations include hosting a booth at Celebrate Blackfoot in July, treating the community to a barbecue in August, and in September it will be putting a float in the Eastern Idaho State Fair parade and hosting a Community Market in its parking lot. The market is a place for its employees to sell personal items and Dawn Enterprises to sell overstock and no longer needed items. This year the general public may also pay to host a table.

Butler’s perspective after directing Dawn Enterprises for the last 27 years: “50 years is a big milestone. We have seen many people come and go, services and the delivery of those services expanded and changed, and we experienced and witnessed tons of accomplishments and growth.”

Come and see for yourself. The last public tour will be Wednesday April 24 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. It usually takes 30 to 40 minutes to see all three buildings, depending on interest and questions. No reservations are required.