STOW, OH – This week, Congressman Dave Joyce (OH-14) applauded ShotStop, a local small business in Stow, for receiving the HIRE Vets Medallion Gold Award from the U.S. Department of Labor. Established by the Honoring Investments in Recruiting and Employing American Military Veterans Act of 2017, the HIRE Vets Medallion Program is the only federal program that recognizes job creators for recruiting, employing, and retaining veterans. Administered by the Department’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service, the program has now awarded 1,341 HIRE Vets Medallions since its inception in 2018.

“After our veterans sacrifice so much to defend our country and freedom, we have a responsibility to ensure they have the job opportunities they need to lead successful lives here at home,” said Joyce. “By hiring these brave men and women and helping them build meaningful, long-term careers, ShotStop is helping us fulfill that responsibility. As the son of a veteran, I know our nation’s heroes are dedicated workers with unique and diverse skillsets. I couldn’t be prouder that one of OH-14’s small businesses has received this important award and commend the team at ShotStop for helping our veterans continue to serve their communities here at home as members of the workforce.”

“ShotStop is honored to be recognized for the HIRE Vets Medallion Gold Award from the U.S. Department of Labor program,” said Val Iliev, Founder, President and CEO of ShotStop. “We believe it’s of utmost importance to hire vets back into the workforce in all facets of business. Our veteran team members have been critical to our body armor and ballistics technologies company both in business strategy and for our product development roadmap. ShotStop’s mission is to develop armor products that protect and save the lives of service men and women on the front lines and we can’t do that without the input of our veterans who have been there.”

ShotStop was one of 675 businesses to be honored with this award by the U.S. Department of Labor this year, all of which met rigorous employment and veteran integration assistance criteria, including veteran hiring and retention percentages, availability of veteran-specific resources, leadership programming for veterans, dedicated human resource effort, and/or compensation and tuition assistance programs for veterans. Collectively, this year’s award recipients hired more than 37,000 veterans since 2018.

To learn more about ShotStop, click here.

To watch the virtual 2020 HIRE Vets Medallion Award Ceremony, click here.

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