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A new coffee and custard shop aims to showcase the abilities of all.
Chris Woodrum is something of a celebrity.
“We can’t even go to the grocery store without him seeing someone he knows,” says Beth Woodrum, Chris’s mother, with an incredulous shake of her head. “He just makes friends everywhere.”
This fall, when a coffee and dessert shop plans to open in a prominent corner of the old American Viscose Corporation off Ninth Street, Chris’s star status will rise even higher.
“That’s my name,” he beams, pointing to the teal logo of a coffee cup and a heart that his mom fashioned more than three years ago as she began her quest to found a workplace for young adults with special abilities.
Chris, 25, has Down syndrome. And as he prepared to wrap up a stellar senior year at Cave Spring High School in 2017 — he was Cave Spring’s Knight, a member of the soccer team and an all-around buddy to all — Beth wondered what the future held for him and other disabled young adults in the area.
“Once school is over, everything stops — therapy, instruction, camps,” she explains. There are a few opportunities for employment — Chris has worked with the Salem Red Sox and at Chick-fil-A. But not enough.
Beth researched programs around the world and landed on the idea of opening a cafe. There could be jobs that engaged with the public and others behind the scenes. It could be a workplace that not only gave young adults a positive environment and steady employment but also showcased to the community that these twenty-somethings had gifts and talents to share.
As she worked through the details, Beth knew the coffee shop needed to be a successful business. But she also could see that the youth she was aiming to serve would require support. Collaborating with a team of special education teachers, she set out to develop a life-and-workplace skills program that the young adults would complete before applying for their jobs.
Although Beth had no restaurant experience, no idea how to run a nonprofit, no background as a teacher, she had worked extensively with special needs youth and had run a small business. She used every life experience and contact she had to create LovABLE Services, a 501(c)(3) established to train disabled young adults, and Chris’s Coffee and Custard, a business subsidiary of the nonprofit, where graduates of the program could work.
When she reached out to the Roanoke community, she says the response was overwhelming. LovABLE Services has won large community grants and substantial business donations. Friends and fellow church members, neighbors and teachers (Woodrum calls them her “volunteer army”) have painted and fundraised and role-played with some 15 young adults hoping to work at Chris’s.
“It’s been so neat to see how many people have supported us and believed in our vision,” she says.
Chris’s will offer high-end coffee drinks and smoothies and scoops of frozen custard with mix-ins and toppings. Chris’s will also sell ready-made snacks and lunch-type meals, as well as frozen custard cookies and cakes.
On a recent tour, Chris and Beth excitedly showed off their top-of-the-line equipment, a generous employee break room, a dining area with a built-in fireplace and lots of exposed brick and sunlight. There’s a conference room with a big-screen TV that can be rented out; coffee shop employees can deliver lunch during meetings.
After all the planning, the reconstruction, the delays (Chris’s was first set to open more than a year ago) the Woodrums are thrilled for customers to be stepping onto the red carpets (Chris’s idea) that are rolled out at each of the shop’s entrances.
“I’m so happy!” Chris exclaims, his broad smile lighting up his whole face.
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