WAYNE — Aileen Rivera often had to scramble in search of a suitable program for her adult son with special needs.
For years, she said, this went on. She never found a truly perfect fit for Daniel, now 37 — a place where he could feel accepted, occupied and safe.
But in June 2021, a new organization opened its doors at 30 Woodridge Terrace. Foundabilities is not only suitable, Rivera said, but almost, well — almost magical. That she finally had such a place to take her son in their hometown was a relief. It was like the princess trying on the glass slipper for the first time, she said.
“He feels loved,” said Rivera, a former councilwoman. “He’s happy that they understand him.”
Daniel, who has autism and other developmental disabilities, is among more than 20 clients of Foundabilities, a volunteer-led nonprofit that runs activities three days per week.
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Lisa Minervini, also of Wayne, described a similar experience in trying to engage her adult son with autism. At 24, Matthew is the nonprofit’s youngest client. “It was just a godsend to be able to go there,” she said. “It feels like a second family.”
Foundabilities is in a township-owned building — a former sewage treatment plant that, for more than 50 years, accommodated the Foundation for the Handicapped. That organization provided much of the same joy for the adults with special needs who went there, though it was structured as a workshop.
At the time the foundation was established, its workers were paid according to the number of units they produced, an amount that usually came to less than minimum wage.
The piece-rate system was abolished as labor laws became stricter. The adults then performed tasks at minimum wage, a requirement that ultimately contributed to the foundation’s demise.
The workshop, which relied heavily on donations and sponsorships, was already hurting financially at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.
Thomas Rose, who sat on the foundation’s board of directors, recalled that the outbreak dealt the workshop its final blow. “If COVID hadn’t happened,” he said, “we may have been able to hang on.”
Rose, a retired special education teacher for the K-12 district, said he approached the township to see if officials were interested in reopening the facility, but on an all-volunteer basis.
Foundabilities was established in a matter of months, and Rose is now its board chairman. “Everyone is just happy — that’s the best way I can describe it,” he said. “It makes me feel great to provide something that, in many cases, wasn’t available to these adults.”
Michele Cornell, of Lincoln Park, said her 37-year-old daughter, Danielle, who has Down syndrome, used to go to the foundation and that she missed it terribly when it shut down. “She was very upset,” she said. “She doesn’t deal with change well, and that was a big change.”
Cornell, a special education teacher at Wayne Hills High School, said she did not hesitate to register Danielle for the program at Foundabilities as soon as it was available.
“She likes the fellowship,” Cornell said. “It’s a good friend zone.”
The facility was humming on a recent Monday morning. On the Friday before, the group visited Pennings Orchard in Warwick, New York, and Danielle and the other clients were allowed to fill 10-pound bags with apples. The volunteer supervisor instructed them on how to make applesauce, while in an adjacent room, one of the adults was completing a jigsaw puzzle.
But most of the clients were working – either bagging plastic combs or shredding paper documents, which were dropped off at the facility by local businesses.
The combs come from a Paterson-based manufacturer of beauty care products; the company donates money to Foundabilities in exchange for the labor. The clients slide the pieces into plastic sheaths, then use an impulse heat sealer to shut the bags.
Collectively, the clients can turn around tens of thousands of units per month.
But Rose said there are no hard deadlines that the clients are pressured to meet. “We don’t work for pay,” he said. “We work for donations. We just do what we can.”
Foundabilities provides other community services.
For example, the clients label and use wafer seals to prepare delivery of newsletters to residents of the Packanack Lake Club Association. They are also responsible for stuffing envelopes with tax bills and utility bills for the entire township.
When the clients are not working, the volunteer supervisors treat them to bingo nights, birthday celebrations and pizza parties.
Rivera said she has discovered inner peace, knowing that Daniel is happy. “He feels that he has worth,” she said. “From the moment he stepped foot at Foundabilities, it was like we hit home. We found our home.”
Philip DeVencentis is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: devencentis@northjersey.com