Timing can be serendipitous, and that’s what happened last week at Palmer Industries on Cypress Street.

Jeff Nelson, owner and CEO of the company, that is the country’s largest manufacture of vanity sink legs and high-end custom made shelving fixtures, planned to celebrate three consecutive months of record breaking sales last Friday. He would throw an employee appreciation luncheon. A burgundy colored table cloth covered a table that stretched down an aisle accessing racks of parts. Fifty chairs lined the table.

Unknown to Nelson, U.S. Navy Petty Officer Second Class Sianna McNulty, whose husband Shane McNulty is a Palmer employee, had plans too. She secretly nominated Nelson for a Patriot Award in recognition of the company’s participation in the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve. ESGR, a US Department of Defense program, was established in 1972 to foster a culture of support for the Guard and Reserve service as the nation transitioned to an all-volunteer force.

The award was approved but McNulty didn’t know when it would arrive. As it turned out she had it in time to make a presentation coinciding with the employee appreciation event. She notified the mayor’s office and got out the word to Ward 3 Councilman Tim Howe and the Warwick Beacon.

Nelson surely suspected something when the officials turned up in the midst of production and McNulty brought him to the front of the room with its giant American flag hanging from the rafters. After introductions and small talk, McNulty got down to business.

“The significance of this is great. It emphasizes the fact that Jeff, and Palmer Industries, has gone above and beyond USERRA legal obligations and provided his employee, my husband Shane, with unwavering support and flexibility when I have been called to serve,” she said. She continued, “Jeff and the team here have afforded our family the ability to lift the weight off our shoulders when it comes to our two kids and the responsibilities that are often split in different ways between Shane, myself and members of my family.”

Shane, who was also kept in the dark about the award, actually made the presentation to Nelson.

Mayor Frank Picozzi chimed in with congratulations and noted the city’s participation in the program and how employees have returned to their jobs after serving the nation. Howe spoke of our veterans and their contributions.

Nelson, who has worked in the industry for 25 years and bought Palmer, moving it to larger facilities in Warwick, thanked his employees and McNulty. He later shared plans with the mayor and Howe to expand the business to an adjoining property.

However, he didn’t attribute the Palmer’s success to happenstance, although the Patriot Award and the employee appreciation luncheon coincided.

“You make your own luck in life,” he told the mayor. “You have good people and this is what happens.”