Celebrating Day-One Team Member Tom Hedrick

During the month of July, each week leading up to our 35th Anniversary, we will feature one of our day-one team members. Today, we celebrate the 35-year career of Tom Hedrick - Vice President, Tribal Community Services:

When Tom Hedrick was 16 years old, he and his friends frequently rode motorcycles in the San Bernardino foothills, with a view of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians reservation always in sight, and the group would eventually end up in Tom’s father’s garage. At the time, Tom’s father was a teacher at San Gorgonio High School, where Tom and friends were students.

“One day my father said to me, ‘Hey why don’t you guys go down to the reservation and get jobs because I don’t want to see you in my garage and at school,’ ” said Tom.

What Tom didn’t know then was that his father’s suggestion would lead him to an enjoyable, lifelong career.

Tom was first hired as a food runner for the snack bar in the bingo hall, which opened in July of 1986. By the time Tom entered college, he was offered a supervisor position where he was responsible for managing video pull tabs, an older version of today’s slot machines.

Tom was later encouraged by then-General Manager and current Chairman Ken Ramirez to attend dealer school to learn table games. Once he completed dealer school, Tom became a supervisor and eventually manager of table games. Tom later transferred back to the slots department for approximately eight years before later transitioning to Director of MOD (Managers on Duty) where he oversaw the implementation of the customer experience, quality assurance, and MOD programs. Recently, after serving five years as Director of MOD, Tom was named Vice President of Tribal Community Services where he currently serves.

Along with growing his career the past 35 years, Tom also grew a family. He met his wife while attending California State University, San Bernardino and the couple raised two daughters, one in her senior year of college and another who will be a senior in high school this fall. Tom credits his employment with San Manuel for not only instilling in him a positive set of values and morals that has benefited his family but, also for enabling his daughters “to have a fair shot at life” as they will attend and graduate from college without the weight of student debt.

During Tom’s career, he experienced several ups and downs but it was a moment during the COVID-19 pandemic that significantly impacted his spirit. Tom witnessed the Tribe take great care of one another as well as team members, which included the creation of hundreds of temporary health and safety-related positions. One of Tom’s tasks at the time involved the welcoming and rallying of several groups of these new team members, only at first the groups weren’t filled with new people. Many of those whose positions were on hold due to the pandemic were offered one of these temporary positions in order to continue working.

“When we were bringing people back, I had a speech for each of these groups,” Tom said. “I said this is our opportunity to bring our team back together. The Tribe has sacrificed and this is our chance to give back to the Tribe and bring the team back."

At the end of each speech, Tom would ask how many in the group were previous team members, and eventually, there was a day when no one raised their hand. The moment caused Tom to become emotional.?

“I knew the moment was significant because it meant we reached our goal of bringing everyone back who wanted to return. It felt like we gave something back to the Tribe,” said Tom.

When asked about the future, Tom says he has no plans for slowing down.

“If I had the opportunity to retire right now, I would not. I worked for 35 years in the casino and now I get to be part of something that is absolutely giving back to the Tribe. I’m excited to see things that the Tribe has spoken about. I want to see the impact on San Bernardino. This is their homeland and I grew up here. I would like to see the Tribe’s vision come true.”