VIENNA, VA — Sport & Health Co.'s Watergate Sport & Health Club in Washington, DC, recently was named Employer of the Year by the Marriott Foundation for People with Disabilities (MFPD). MFPD is a not-for-profit organization established in 1989 to enhance employment opportunities for youth with disabilities.

Watergate Sport & Health Club received the group's highest annual honor for outstanding achievement in the charity's “Bridges…from school to work®” program, which helps guide young people with disabilities toward community integration and vocational independence.

The foundation's Employer of the Year award recipient is chosen from regional or national organizations with more than 100 employees company-wide. The company must employ at least five Bridges participants during the preceding year, have promoted recognition of Bridges, and have a positive and receptive environment for Bridges participants within the company.

Watergate Sport & Health, which currently employs two students, has worked with the program since 2003 and has had up to five students working at one time. Sport & Health Co. as a whole has worked with the Bridges program since 2000 and has hired 19 young people from the program in five of its area facilities.

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