The new Dollar General manager in Victoria has brought with him a passion for leadership and customer service.

Darrell Badley, who is new to the area, was drawn to the Dollar General because of the corporation’s positive relations with veterans.

After first applying for a part-time job at a different store location, Badley was asked by his interviewer to consider the manager position.

Though it wasn’t the plan Badley had originally, he said he decided to give it a try because he understood there was a great need for leadership in the store.

Badley, a veteran of the Army and National Guard, has never worked in retail before this job.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity,” he said. “I’m grateful for this community.”

The 42-year-old joined the military after high school with a dream of becoming a music teacher.

After he got home from training, he fell in love and decided to join the military full time to support his family.

“Instead of me doing music, I did supply and logistics, because that was a field that was most needed at the time when I joined the military,” Badley said.

He spent nine years performing logistics and training with the military, but an injury just after Sept. 11, 2001, required him to medically retire.

After spending some time recovering in hospitals and rehab, he went back into the field he knew, this time working for the federal government.

Said Badley: “My disability prevented me from being able to do a real regular full-time job at that time.”

He tried out careers with corporate America, selling insurance through AFLAC, and opening his own

business, offering corporate training, professional development, team building activities, motivational speaking and marketing promotions.

“It took a whole lot of soul searching and praying,” he said to overcome the disabilities and come to terms with his new reality.

The important thing for him to remember was to tap into his strengths and remember the areas where he was proficient, such as customer service, supplies and logistics.

“I can’t do anything physical, I can’t really sit at a desk and do a desk job because one of my disabilities is sleep apnea,” said Badley. “So I needed something where I could be out and mobile but still be able to use the skills and use the knowledge that I had.”

He worked with a training company traveling the country doing training and corporate development, which led him to veteran engagement events in Virginia.

From there, he learned about Dollar General’s veteran hiring programs, where he’d meet his wife, Theresa.

The two moved to Crewe, and Badley has been working as sales manager of the Dollar General for about one month.

He said they wanted to get away from the big city to a place that was more family-centric. He has already been giving back to the community by volunteering with the school system as the instructor for the percussionist in the marching band. This was just one small step towards his life-long dream of leading a band and choir.

Badley has three goals for the store. The biggest goal, he said, “is to make sure this town of Victoria and the county of Lunenburg and surrounding areas know that we are here and we are committed to the excellence that they expect from a national brand like Dollar General.”

His second goal is to build a relationship with the community and customers.

Finally, Badley would like to “instill a sense of leadership and a sense of responsibility within my staff.”

“Every single customer should leave here with a smile on their face regardless of what they spent,” Badley said.