A business started by a former special education teacher who lives in Waukesha is providing work to those with disabilities — by serving sweet treats in a traveling ice cream truck around and outside Waukesha County.
Kristen Corrie said Sweet Abilities, LLC officially became a business June 1. She is working to transition the business into a nonprofit.
Corrie said she has wanted to start the business for over 10 years and finally decided to buy a trailer in May to begin renovations and do additional research on the business side of the ice cream truck. However, after starting a GoFundMe to get the ball rolling, the project started a lot faster than she expected due to an outpouring of support from community members.
“It became a business June 1 this summer so in the heart of the pandemic, when everything came to a screeching halt for the crew that I work with,” Corrie said. “They all had jobs in the community, they all worked, they went to the YMCA, things like that. Then everything just stopped.”
Corrie worked at an all-special needs school in Elkhorn for 12 years, where she helped 18- to 21-year-olds transition into the community. Corrie gained inspiration from a coffee cart students ran at the school.
“This population of individuals, they’re so proud of themselves when they tell people that they work or that they’re helping somebody and they really just want to feel purposeful and needed and so this just, it’s probably one of the best things that’s come out of COVID for my students and I,” Corrie said.
“When everyone is sitting at home we figured out a way to safely stay occupied.”
The truck serves local pre-packaged Purple Door Ice Cream. Employees stock the cooler, set up the trailer, serve customers, handle money and more.
Since June, Corrie said, she has been booked every weekend, having to sometimes turn people down on bookings. Sweet Abilities has provided ice cream at private birthdays, beer gardens, breweries, graduation parties, local businesses, churches, baby showers and more.
Right now Sweet Abilities employs seven and is currently not accepting applications.
Corrie said she is blown away by the level of support and how fast the business has grown.
“I would really love to, in a year, have another trailer or ice cream truck so we can expand and more importantly hire more individuals with disabilities because they’re sitting at home and losing all those skills that they were taught in school,” she said.
Overall, Corrie said she hopes Sweet Abilities will have positive impacts on both community members and employees.
“For my employees I want them to know that they are just as capable as you or I to hold a job, to be successful at a
job and to be just successful, active members in the community,” she said. “They don’t need to be in the back of a restaurant doing dishes, they don’t have to be at a program, they can be part of a business where they interact with their customers and they’re making this business successful, it’s not me.”
Corrie said community members are learning to respect and understand her crew members.
“This isn’t a charity, these guys are workers and they want to provide a service to the customers and the customers are really just learning that they’re capable of doing that,” she said.
Sweet Abilities plans to have another event at Ace Hardware in Waukesha sometime in September. Check out their Facebook page for specific dates and other events: https://bit.ly/3hmVoRe.
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August 21, 2020 at 07:30PM
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