Thinking Outside the Box

Mom looks outside system to get help for her son

DAYTON-Sherri Huwe said she will be forever grateful to the many people who helped her wage a long and complicated battle to help her developmentally challenged son, Ben, keep his business intact. Ben lost the funding for his job coach in January 2015, when his greeting card business at Elk Drug in Dayton was deemed unviable by developmental disability services experts.

"We were upset about that, of course," Huwe said. Huwe said she tried for about a year to get funding reinstated, but got nowhere.

So she said she contacted the Northwest Justice Project to see what could be done, and was advised by an attorney in their Walla Walla office to file for an administrative hearing.

"We were lucky to have our case picked. They believed in us," she said. "It's not easy to get a lawyer for these situations."

The attorney told Huwe she would need to develop a business plan for Ben. Huwe said she didn't know where to start, and so she turned to Brad McMasters at the Port of Columbia for help.

"Brad was the key," she said. "I spilled my whole guts to him."

McMasters showed her how to look outside the system in order to solve her problem, she said. He suggested that Huwe get in touch with the Mid-Columbia Tri-Cities Service Corps of Retired Executives.

It took Donna Rassat, a SCORE representative, several months of research to create a business plan for Ben Huwe Designs, said Huwe.

"I've got a kid with major disabilities. It was overwhelming to me. Rassat walked me through the whole process," said Huwe. "We looked into mass marketing Ben's greeting cards, and into how he can grow his business over time," she said.

Cindi Wolski at the Department of Community Health in Walla Walla met with representatives from Goodwill Industries, who agreed to provide for Ben's job coach, Huwe said.

"This is the first business in Dayton to have Goodwill's help," said Huwe with pride in her voice. Huwe said she was relieved to have settled the case out of court.

Huwe said she expects to hear soon from Ben's caseworker, and she believes Ben's job coach will be reinstated in short order.

Now 28 years old, Ben struggles with many medical and developmental issues. And he has had surgeries, too numerous to count, said his mother.

Ben lives one block away from his parents, and is cared for around the clock by four caregivers, whom Huwe refers to as "unsung heroes." She said they provided transportation for Ben to go to Elk Drug and work one hour, four days each week, throughout the whole ordeal. It is important for Ben to adhere to a routine, she said.

Ben's greeting card business developed out of his Dayton High School senior project, when he made gift cards and gift bags for Dayton General Hospital and for St. Mary's Hospital in Walla Walla, because of his concern for sick people, said Huwe.

Ben's gift bags, bookmarks and gift cards are for sale at Elk Drug at 167 East Main Street in Dayton.