Tina Nohle, who has a developmental disability, got help contacting Coca-Cola and leased a pop machine in the building that houses the Midland County Department of Human Services. She visits the machine twice a week to clean it, stock it with soda pop and water, and collect the money.
“She wanted to be somewhere where she could see people,” said caregiver Amy Sanchez, who drives her to her very part-time job. And she wanted to work just a few hours a week, leaving her time for fun things such as swimming and day trips.
Neither Nohle nor Sanchez would say how much the machine earns, but her beverages cost $1.25 and she makes 28 cents on each bottle she sells.
Nohle is one of about 15 disabled Midland County residents who have created microbusinesses, small enterprises that have low startup costs and supplement the person’s regular income. A grant pays startup costs and, depending on the type of disability, a government program pays for helpers such as job coaches.
Part of what makes these businesses work is that their owners get help with tasks they can’t do. Mike Hitchcock, 21, has cerebral palsy and finds typing slow. He uses speech recognition software that allows him to type by dictating the words he wants printed on the screen, but it isn’t tuned finely enough to perform all the keyboard tasks needed for his web design business, WebWorksmi.com, which specializes in making sites accessible to disabled people. So he’s hired Vicki Winton to help him with the typing.
Cosmos Lapine, who has a developmental disability, took a cue from his father, who buys and sells wood products. Lapine’s small business, the Cosmos Co., is a distributor for wood products including bird and bat houses, cedar siding and sauna kits. Lapine’s job is coating the wooden houses with a preservative and keeping track of the inventory stored in his apartment. He and caregiver Marcia Buchmann deliver the goods to customers.
Photo by Daily News/Kevin Benedict.
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