Poppin Joe's Soul Food For Thought

Nancy Shute – Fri Apr 3, 12:46 pm ET - U.S. News & Business Reports:

Joe Steffy is off to Overland Park, Kan., this week to do a PowerPoint presentation on his business, Poppin' Joe's Kettle Korn. He's a 23-year-old small-business man with a goal of $100,000 in sales by 2012. Joe also has autism and Down syndrome and is nonverbal. When he gives his talk, he will push buttons on an augmentative speech device to deliver the words. His audience will be parents who fervently hope their own special-needs children will be able to work, too.

Joe's parents, Ray and Janet, didn't agree with the school district assessment in their home town of Louisburg, Kan., that said Joe would never be able to work or live independently. "I'm one who can easily get ticked off," says Ray. "That ticked me off. We saw more in Joe than that. We set out to prove to the school that he had capabilities." They came across kettle corn while on a trip to Alaska and realized that all that popping, scooping, and serving suited Joe's love of work.

In 2005, Poppin' Joe's Kettle Korn was born. Sales have grown from $16,000 in 2005 to $50,000 in 2008, both from selling at festivals and from delivering popcorn to local outlets. Joe has five part-time employees, and his parents help out with driving and other tasks. "Pop and everyone that works with him knows whatever Joe wants to do you let him do, because he's the boss," Ray says. "If he wants to pop, he'll shove Dad out of the way and pop."

If the business stays on track, it should be grossing more than $100,000 in three years...

"It's been hard work, from the standpoint of physical work," says Ray Steffy, who is 67. "But a parent with a child like Joe has a choice. You can either kick in and do this kind of thing, or you can sit and fret emotionally with the amount of energy, worrying about what's going to happen to them."

The payoff for that effort, as far as the Steffys are concerned, has been priceless. They see their son make a local popcorn delivery, accept payment, fold it, and put it in his pocket. When he walks out, his dad says, Joe looks 3 inches taller than when he walked in.

Was talking with a friend of ours just yesterday. Knowing Ben's love for lollipops, green or red, depending on who knows ... he suggested a similar track for Ben. Peanut's Pops. (Peanut is one of my nicks for Ben.) I may have to look into a candy maker. Many, many, many, many autistic/other abled kids/adults have what some in the "helping professions" call "obsessive" needs for certain items, foods, colors, textures. I can and regularly do assure the "pros" that it is not obsession ... it is requirement for survival. Can't emphasize that enough. They REQUIRE CERTAIN THINGS FOR SURVIVAL. Our view of what "survival" means is as varied as the individual.

For many kids like Ben, (and Joe, and your cousin, and your son or your daughter) survival is being emotionally and spiritually nourished. I don't know exactly why Ben needs many of the things he needs, I just know he languishes without those things and, hence, I'll do anything possible to provide 'em. It's his soul food. And, in turn, his state of being becomes what humanity needs for its own spiritual nurturing (or soul food.) :o) What we see "in return" for provision of those needs is a most spiritually active child from whom the most incredible love emanates. You've seen it and felt it, I'm sure you have. Some people with Down's or Autism (or both) put forth an ethereal glow and presence that defies real description. It calls forth directly to your soul. You feel it emotionally, in your gut, and in your soul. It's as if heaven touched you for a moment. It's very powerful, warm, and often emotionally overwhelming.

So Moms, Dads, Aunties, Uncles, Grams and Gramps, friends, teachers, when Joe and Ben WANT and NEED a green lollipop or a video in the player RIGHT NOW! They really need it. It's a matter of survival. Don't you obsess about it. Don't try to "extinguish the behavior." Give it up. Turn it over. Be at peace. You're doing the right thing. What they need today, may easily be gone and forgotten next month, as they move on and into other survival techniques. If what many of you say is true, that your children/loved ones are "angels sent from God to teach us" ... then truly believe in what you say. Mean what you say. Say what you mean.

You might not understand what you're supposed to learn from that repetitive penchant for a green lollipop or from the repetitive playing over and over and over of Under The Sea or Elmo's World, or Peter Frampton's "Show Me The Way," but you can be sure at some time, some day, somehow, and in some way ... you will be gifted with understanding. Be patient. There is purpose in all things, you just may have to let it be and wait it out. And you must be attentive. What seems like boring repetition of nonsensical things, can be very instructive and purposeful. For instance, just last night as I read the story about Poppin' Joe ... Ben played a song over and over and over that I had NEVER heard him play. It was "Jimmy Crack Corn." I didn't get it at first and kept asking him to "Turn It Down!" Until I realized that he was playing it, clapping his hands, and squealing happily while I read the story about Joe's "corn" ... popcorn... kettle corn. Corn! That's how Ben communicates. It was really rather brilliant. He understood what I was reading, that I was formulating this post, and was indicating his approval & happy feelings about the whole deal. Simple, effective, soulful. That's what you gotta pay attention to ... the seemingly simple repetitions. Purposeful. Simple. Whole environment communication.

And remember:

POPPIN' JOE'S