Uncommon Personalities: Meet Mary Catherine Halfpenny

My hometown is…
Technically, I’m from Staten Island, the last borough to get dug out when blizzards happen. New Yorkers think I’m not really a New Yorker, but everyone else thinks I’m legitimately from here.

When I was 9, my family moved to Warwick, NY. I was raised to be capable of building my own chicken coop, by parents who always took home the class pet. We had an assortment of creatures at home at all times.

My favorite process in the UncommonGoods warehouse is…
I think creativity is really important in the warehouse, especially in terms of process design. I’m excited when I can take the innovations of my team and transform them into improvements to our processes, and benefit both the customers and those of us who work here at UncommonGoods.

I’m inspired by…
The idea that all great movements start as seemingly small acts.

The best gift anyone has given me was…
I want to tell the story of a memorable gift that, unbeknownst to the giver or receiver, I was a part of putting together. We had paper roses that were made from paper from elephant dung. It was a bouquet of twelve roses, and I packed it in with a card that said, “I know you’re going through a tough situation right now, but be assured that good things can come from a sh*tty situation.” This combination of humor with genuine care and creativity is one of the reasons I love our customers.

An uncommon fact about me…
I started at Uncommon Goods as a picker in the warehouse on December 4, 2009, and expected to be seasonally employed for 3 weeks.

When I’m not working, I’m probably…
Watching Rachel Maddow online.

The word that best describes me…
Queer.

Working at UncommonGoods I’ve learned…
That staying up until midnight running correlations on datasets is really fun.

With a pile of stuff in front of me I would build…
You’re given paint, some scraps of wood, an old t-shirt, rubber cement, cotton swabs, and 36 cents (in whatever combination of coins you choose).

I would build my net worth! Considering I’m a Halfpenny, I would have just increased it by 7200%!