Life Experiences – Completing the Vision

Hi Everybody, I’m Here!

This is the morning greeting from Angie Grenz, one of 40 employees at Life Experiences. Angie is a 30 year old woman with Down syndrome who moved to Cary about a year ago to live with her sister and brother –in-law, Deanna and Albert L’Homme. Angie works in the bakery, one of 5 small businesses run by this non-profit located in Cary. The other businesses are a commercial laundry, vending machine program, sub-contract department and janitorial service. Each business provides valuable services and products for the community, all completed by adults with developmental disabilities and cognitive challenges.

Angie’s story is very heart warming. According to Deanna, “Angie came to us when she was 6 days old in May of 1977. My mother, a widow with three children of her own, decided to open a foster home for children with special needs in her Tampa, F lorida home. Angie was only supposed to stay for a week, until the state could place her. Her birth parents could not cope with a child with Down syndrome. That week turned into 3 years. By that time she was the ‘little sister.’ My mother adopted her when she was a little over three years old. She was officially part of the family.

“Last year my husband and I were empty nesters,” continued Deanna, “after our fourth child moved away to college. Shortly after his departure, Angie and my mother came to live with us due to my mother’s health. She had been diagnosed with Alzheimer Disease and could no longer care for herself or for Angie.”

Once Angie arrived, Deanna started looking for a place for Angie to work. She learned about Life Experiences from Angie’s caseworker and from Dr. Michael Anthony. Both people recommended the agency for its outstanding work with adults with developmental disabilities.

Deanna recalls their first visit to Life Experiences, “I didn’t know what to expect, but the place was great. It was full of busy, happy people doing their jobs. They were smiling, talking, and getting and giving instructions. Everyone was busy and everyone had a job to do. Angie and I got to visit every department and talk with some of the employees. With every stop Angie’s smiles only got bigger!”

Angie adores Emril Lagasse, so working in the bakery is right up her alley. She wraps brownies for area restaurants, washes dishes, helps make cookies, packs box lunches and pours barbeque sauce into take out cups for Danny’s Bar-B-Que. If you ask Angie what her job is, she will respond with a wide grin, “brownie wrapper chef!”

“Life Experiences is a wonderful organization that should be available to all the people that could benefit from it,” summarizes Deanna. “For us it has meant we are able to let Angie be her own person. To think and do things for herself. Sometimes we think people with disabilities cannot do things for themselves. What they need is a chance to prove they can and Life Experiences is just the place to do it.”

Completing the Vision

Angie’s story is just one of many at Life Experiences. For nearly 30 years, Life Experiences has provided a place for adults with disabilities who strive to become independent and productive citizens, working for pay. The program began as a small bakery with four employees and two staff members and today operates five businesses employing 40 adults with developmental disabilities and 8 staff members. Five years ago, Life Experiences opened a new facility in Cary to offer its employees (clients) the best in vocational opportunities and work environments. They started a great plan a decade ago to serve the Wake County community. Today they want to complete that vision.

“At this stage of our growth and development, it is time to plan for the future of Life Experiences,” says Mary Madenspacher, executive director of Life Experiences. We need to assure and ensure that we will always be here to help those families in our community who need support of this kind.”

Because of the need for vocational services in the Triangle, LE has the opportunity to grow into the unfinished portion of our facility, 5000 square feet, and serve an additional 20-30 adults. By expanding the facility and programs to accommodate 60 - 70 people, LE can better meet the needs of the growing population of adults with developmental disabilities in the area.

They are conducting our campaign for the same reason the older generation plants trees for the younger – it proved shade and nourishing fruit for their children. According to Jim Wyatt, CPA, a member of the board of directors of Life Experiences and chair of the “Complete the Vision” campaign, “the goal is to raise $1,000,000 so that we may finish the building and establish an endowment to provide scholarships for future and current employees with disabilities. We are pleased to have two great honorary chairs of this campaign, Rose Edwards of JM Edwards and Ernie McAlister, the Mayor of Cary. Along with them, I invite the entire community to participate in this important campaign.”

Expanding their facility will give more adults with special needs a safe and satisfying work environment to go to each day. It will provide a solution for parents and family members faced with uncertainty when their son, daughter, brother or sister leaves the routine of the school environment. It will give back to the Triangle, through services provided and goods produced and sold in the community. Any way you look at it, Life Experiences is a win-win situation.

If you are interested in getting more information about this campaign, contact Jim Wyatt at 467-1701 or jkwyatt@wyattcpa.com or Mary Madenspacher at 467-1973 or Mary@LifeExperiences.org.