PERRYVILLE BUSINESS OWNER GIVES EMPLOYEES FREE CONCERT

PERRYVILLE -- Most business owners like to reward their employees each year for a job well done. But Don Welge doesn't go for the traditional bonus check or office party.

This year, his approximately 2,000 employees will get a private country music concert featuring performers Ricky Van Shelton and Dottie West.

Welge, who is President and General Manager of Gilster-Mary Lee Corporation, said in the past, he's given his employees free trips to Six Flags Over Mid America and all-expense paid excursions on Mississippi River boats, but this year he wanted to try something different.

"It's good for the employee moral," Welge said.

The concert, which is closed to the public, will be Sunday afternoon at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau.

Welge said he's given away about 4,000 tickets to employees, and stockholders of Gilster-Mary Lee, which operates six plants in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois.

A plant located near Perryville produces about 15,000 cases of microwave popcorn each day. Other plants produce cake mixes, potato and stuffing mixes, gelatin, pudding, chocolate syrup, hot cocoa and drink mix. The corporation is headquartered in Chester, Ill.

Welge said for years he's scheduled some kind of "summer outing" for his employees. He did throw one other concert in 1987, at a high school gymnasium in Chester, Ill.

But he said he likes the Show Me Center, and booking Shelton and West wasn't that difficult.

"We worked with an agent there in Cape, and the Show Me Center is a nice auditorium that's not far from Perryville and Chester," he said.

Each employee is allowed to bring a guest to the concert, he said.

Asked if the practice of giving the summer outings to his employees pays off in the workplace, he said: "Those things are hard to measure, but overall morale is usually high this time of year."