Able to Serve participants get out, do good and learn skills

If you work or live in Garner, chances are you are familiar with Able to Serve. Participants in the educational and service program for adults with disabilities don’t sit still. They like to get out and get things done.

Their aim is to serve their community, and where they have not yet figured out a way to help out, they want to learn. The program’s participants are on the road two or three days a week for service projects, tours of businesses and government offices, and classes, or for some recreation, like bowling.

“A lot of Garner has learned about special needs individuals by us coming to them,” says Carlton McDaniel Jr., founder and executive director of Able to Serve.

In part, Able to Serve exists to provide structure to the participants’ days and some respite for their families. But its goal is to enable its charges to become a part of their community through classes that teach skills and concepts they may have missed in school, and through service projects.

The program’s biggest project these days is doing the legwork for a local Backpack Buddies program, which fills backpacks with food each week for schoolkids in need to take home. The Able to Serve crew shops for the food and fills 120 backpacks to be distributed by a local Rotary club.

Selecting items, buying them, loading them into and off of the bus, and then sorting them hones life skills. Packing the backpacks builds skills that could be transferrable to work in a grocery store, says Ellen Beene, program coordinator.

On a recent day, the group was back at its Buffaloe Road home adjacent to Lord of Life Lutheran Church for lunch after taking a Zumba class and putting information packets in pew pockets at First Baptist Church of Garner. Program participants also prepare the bulletin for Lord of Life each week, a job that requires collating, folding and stapling the multipage publication and that helps out a part-time church secretary.

Sandy Petty’s 29-year-old daughter, Beryl, has been a part of Able to Serve for about 6½ years. She says Beryl, who has autism, has learned social skills and has developed friendships and a sense of purpose. “She always says, ‘I’ve got to go there today and be there for Miss Ellen.’ ”

“She likes to be busy,” Petty says. “But she needs someone to guide her, and I just can’t guide her 24 hours a day.”

Classes after lunch and cleanup, for which everyone has assigned chores, may see members just out of high school work on counting and arithmetic, or feature a visit from a Rotarian who explains to the older adults what’s required of his job.

On a field trip to a local Jeep dealership to learn about the process of buying a car, a salesman described three models of Jeep, followed by another who talked to the group about how financing a car works and the need to save for a down payment and then make monthly payments. A follow-up trip to a garage included a discussion about the need to take care of a vehicle.

Most grants have been for about $1,000 to $1,500. A recent grant from two Garner Rotary clubs, plus a match from Rotary International, brought in $8,000 that is being used to buy computers for participants to use.

Printer ink – which needs to be color to better meet program participants’ needs – and other office and school supplies are a constant need. And because the program is so often on the go, donations of prepaid gas cards are a another way to help out, McDaniel says.

Like many nonprofits, Able to Serve relies on volunteers to supplement two full-time and two part-time staff members. Having a pool of volunteers to call on as need arises would make things more comfortable, Beene says. McDaniel adds that they’ve started a greenhouse on the program’s small campus, so volunteers with gardening skills would be helpful.

This story was originally published November 21, 2016 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Able to Serve participants get out, do good and learn skills."