- Salisbury High School teacher starts second year of business designed to help students with disabilities
- The business makes scented soaps
- The aim is to help them learn life skills
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — The scent of apples fills the air in a classroom at Salisbury High School. Several students with multiple disabilities gathered around a table to pick out fragrances and colors for their products. Teacher Ashley Nagy came up with the idea last year of teaching students how to make and sell soap.
“I saw a need in my classroom for the students to learn different skills such as vocational skills, interaction with their peers and just working on appropriate behavior,” she said.
Nagy's business, Suds-abilities, "Handmade Soaps by Amazingly Abled Students" is run from her classroom. She said COVID limited her students’ ability to go out into the community to learn job skills. So in class, they practice sorting money, labeling products and filling orders. The operation gives the students a multi-sensory experience.
“They might go to a day program and might want to need to know how to use money, might need to know how to put away an item, and those skills are all integrated into my business.”Salisbury High School Teacher Ashley Nagy
“A lot of these students won't have jobs like you and I do,” she said. “But they might go to a day program and might want to need to know how to use money, might need to know how to put away an item, and those skills are all integrated into my business.”
The students are between 15 and 20 years old and come from different school districts across the Lehigh Valley. The multiple disabilities support functional classroom is run through the Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit 21, an agency that provides educational and administrative services to school districts.
Aidan Grimes is 20 years old and has one year of school left. Nagy said she was inspired to start Suds-abilities mainly because of him, so he would learn vocational skills he could use after graduating high school.
JoAnn Grimes, Aidan's mom, said she has seen a difference in her son since the business started.
"I see his increased interest in going to school now," she said. "He wakes up with a smile on his face. When I say 'Are you ready to go get on the bus and see Miss Ashley,' he smiles. I think Aiden really likes to have something to do, like a task. And he likes to be praised for a good job. I think he really gets that with Suds-abilities."
Grimes said she hopes the skills he's learning will allow him to find a sheltered workspace where he could sort or package items.
Students recently made apple-scented soap in the shape of a jigsaw puzzle called Every Piece Has Its Place. Other soaps include Make a Difference, which is mint and eucalyptus, and Resilient, made with rose and vanilla. The bases of the soaps are glycerin, cocoa butter, safflower oil and palm oil.
Sophomore Gabrielle Ott faces challenges with basic skills. Using a device to speak about the soap business, her enthusiasm for the business project is clear.
“I like to make soap because it’s fun,” she said.
Ott gets help packaging soap from "Best Buddy" Samantha Karol. Best buddies partner with students with disabilities at the high school.
Karol said she enjoys working with the students on their soap business.
“I like seeing all the different ways everybody can contribute and them experiencing and smelling all these different scents,” Karol said. “They're just fun to hang around. It's like hanging out with anyone else. It's no different. They have great personalities and they're fun to be around."
Ott’s mom Jennifer said she’s a big supporter of the Suds-abilities.
“Because I know once she's out of school, she can get a job,” she said. “So you know, maybe as Ashley continues to do this stuff with the soap or ends up getting into something else, I would hope that over the years, that would help Gabby."
Suds-abilities accepts donations for the soap to support the program. A portion of the proceeds also goes to the Carbon Lehigh Special Needs Children's Foundation.
