Valentine’s Day means independence for basket makers

Rachel Rice works on assembling a custom-made candy bouquet as part of a non-profit business called Candy Bouquet DesignsThe Enquirer/ Amanda Rossmann

In a brightly lit workshop in Lebanon, Rachel Rice carefully glues candy confections onto a bamboo skewer. She looks up, her face breaking into an easy smile as she proudly shows off her work.

Around her, a dozen others with disabilities chat as they fashion pink and red cellophane into flower-shaped “poofs” and artfully arrange skewers of chocolates in ruffled candy containers exploding with red and pink crinkle paper and ribbons.

• Photos: Candy Bouquet Designs

They’re not Cupid’s assistants, but paid employees of a nonprofit business venture that hires and trains people with developmental disabilities.

For the employees of Candy Bouquet Designs, Valentine’s Day is about more than love and romance; it’s about gaining independence and a sense of accomplishment.

“This is our own self-started microenterprise,” said Kathy Frantz, an adult services provider with the Warren County Board of Developmental Disabilities. “Our goal here is to provide an opportunity for the people here to earn a paycheck.”

The operation launched five years ago as a program of Production Services Unlimited, a nonprofit organization that partners with the WCBDD to provide job opportunities to people with disabilities.

“The economy went down and a lot of our people were coming in from our other (work areas) because they were losing their jobs. We were trying to find other work they could do,” Frantz said.

Candy Bouquet Designs employs about 15 people with a range of disabilities who create custom-made gift baskets. Employees are paid minimum wage or on a piece rate, which varies with the assembly or package, Frantz said.

Last year, workers filled nearly $20,000 in orders. Most of those were for their signature candy gift baskets, which range from $6 to $75, but baskets containing energy and breakfast bars, beef jerky and trail mix, snack cakes and even jewelry and personal care items are also popular.

The nonprofit business is just one of many employment initiatives PSU offers to the 140 people on its payroll.

On a recent weekday, the warehouse floor at the organization’s Columbus Avenue location was bustling with workers assembling and packaging materials ranging from garage door kits to medical specimen bags.

Mark Strother, a procurement agent, said misconceptions about the contributions disabled people can make limit their options, but the work produced at PSU is top-notch.

“There’s nothing we can’t give them that they can’t do, nothing,” he said. “If we didn’t do the great work that we do now, we wouldn’t have this floor so busy.”

The idea, he said, is to offer people with disabilities the chance to lead active independent lives and build a sense of self-worth.

“Each of our people have some ability to do some kind of work,” Frantz said. “If we knock on enough doors, we can get the majority of our people placed somewhere where they can earn a paycheck.”

For Rice, who’s mildly disabled, the job at Candy Bouquet Designs is her first real work experience.

The 34-year-old Franklin resident said she tried to find work through several agencies but was told she tested too low-functioning for the positions offered. She began working on PSU’s production floor in August and moved into the candy room last fall.

“I go home and when my family asks, ‘How was your day?’ I can say, ‘It’s been great,’ ” she said. “I’ve never been able to say that to my parents or my sister.”

Paychecks for warehouse workers range from $2 to $200, Strother said.

“It’s more than just a paycheck,” he said. “It gives them a sense of worth and that’s huge.”