The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
PRIZE PIES
“Thanks-for-Giving” preholiday party Wednesday at Developmental Enterprises Corp.
Clients and staff at the organization that has helped developmentally disabled individuals reach their full potential for 46 years munched on a variety of premium pies
during lunchtime while enjoying the recognition for their ongoing volunteer work from Patrizia and Steve Carcarey, owners of the local icon in Lower Providence.
The couple learned of the DEC clients’ work in the community through longtime friend and customer Mark Phander, who is vice president of the organization.
“Mark brought this to our attention about all the good work they do in the community,” Patrizia said. “This was just our way of thanking them.”
Steve added, “We took our 12-year-old son here last week to see how they do their jobs and impress upon him that they’re no different than anybody else.”
DEC spokesman Ed Shapson noted that misconceptions about developmentally challenged individuals still exist, even though clients, who range in age from their 20s to their 80s, are contributing to society in more ways than ever.
“It’s a stereotype that we all have, that they’re helpless and depend on other people, but they’re just like anybody else,” he said. “They have limitations and there are things they can’t do, but they want to go out into the community and work for children’s charities. They’ll go out into the community and clean up parks, and they do what they can. Every day they’re out there. These are people who receive therapies here, vocational training, and also happen to have intellectual and developmental disabilities.
“As a group, they devote about 3,000 hours to community service, so they’ll work in local food pantries and animal shelters, cleaning up to give the animals a better quality of life. They do a lot of volunteer work, and the Collegeville Bakery is kind enough to say ‘thank you’ to them for all that they’re doing for their neighbors. They wanted to salute the men and women who are clients here because they devote so much time and energy to nonprofit causes in the community. As a company in the community they wanted to say ‘thank you’ and did so by throwing them a Thanksgiving pizza party. They’re also reminding us that we all have an obligation to pool together for the common good. If our clients can do it, we all can do it.”
According to decmc. org, DEC was born out of an idea held by a group of parents who were members of MARC (the Montgomery County Association for Retarded Children) and wished to increase opportunities available for their developmentally and physically disabled children.
Those children were fast approaching adulthood but were not all going to be able to live independently. Collectively, the parents agreed to create a spinoff of MARC’s adult day care program, forming a new corporation and ultimately founding DEC as a private, nonprofit agency that would provide programs and facilities for adults who have developmental and/ or physical needs.