A Community That Serves with Heart

Carlton McDaniel: A lot of people look at people with disabilities and say, wow, that I just breaks my heart. that you know, That’s where you are. Well, But if I look at the person behind it, then I can look at a person and say, there’s a lot more. If they can’t walk as well as I can, or they can’t read as well as I can, there’s a real person back there, so I can see it. The other thing is, we look at crisis. Look at all the unemployment. One of the most underemployed group is people with disabilities. But when you look at the community and say, look at the resources that we have and what they can add to. And all of our folks that have gotten a job in the program was because of the connection they had with a business owner. So we introduced that. So awareness is a part of it. But awareness has been around for years, and it’s never worked. You know, Don’t bully someone with disabilities. Accept someone with disabilities. Well, If I show you that people with disabilities have a lot to offer, and they can be a meaningful part of the community.

Narrator: Welcome to another episode of Best of Johnston County, brought to you by Breeden Law Office.  Our host, Jonathan Breeden, an experienced family lawyer with a deep connection to the community, is ready to take you on a journey through the area that he has called home for over 20 years. Whether it’s a deep dive into the love locals have for the county or unraveling the complexities of family law,  Best of Johnston County presents an authentic slice of this unique community.

Jonathan Breeden: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to another edition of The Best of Johnston County Podcast. I’m your host, Jonathan Breeden. And today, we have with us, able to serves Carlton McDaniel. And he’s going to talk to us about their program, serving adults with disabilities through a structured day program, where they continue to educate adults with disabilities, so that they can be more complete participants in our society and have a place to go and make friends and socialize. 

It’s an absolutely amazing program. I’ve been involved with it for over 10 years. And I think you’re really going to enjoy what he has to say about what he’s doing, and how you can get involved in helping these adults with disabilities.

But before we get to that, I want to ask to remind you to like, follow, subscribe to this podcast, wherever you’re following it. Whether it be on Apple, Spotify, TikTok, LinkedIn, Instagram, wherever you’re seeing The Best of Johnston County Podcast, so that you’ll be made aware of future episodes of The Best Johnston County [00:01:00] Podcast.

We would also ask you if you’re enjoying this podcast, if you’ll leave us a five star review down at the bottom where you’re seeing this podcast, it will help with our visibility. As well, if you would be willing to share some of these clips that you’re seeing on your Instagram page, and tag The Best of Johnston County Podcast, so more people will be able to know about this podcast and we’ll learn more about Johnston County, as you are today. 

Welcome Carlton.

Carlton McDaniel: Thank you, Jonathan 

Jonathan Breeden: All right, we’ve been friends a long time. But everybody listening has not so we’ll start with what’s your name? Where you from? 

Carlton McDaniel: Okay. Carlton McDaniel, and I was born in South Carolina, so that’s where the brogue comes from. Moved to North Carolina when I was very young.

My father’s a pastor. And so we ended up in Garner when my father wanted to go to Southeastern Seminary and finish his seminary degree. So that’s how we ended up in Garner. 

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. All right. And did you go to Garner high school? 

Carlton McDaniel: Went to Garner high school.

I moved here just the summer before high school. So that’s the only school in Garner that I went to. And then in the military right after that. 

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. [00:02:00] What’d you do in the military? 

Carlton McDaniel: I was a drove tractor trailers. That was my big thing when I was young.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. 

Carlton McDaniel: Everybody has big aspirations. Mine was just a big truck. That’s what it was. 

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. So you drove tractor trailers. How long? Were you in the army? 

Carlton McDaniel: I did my one hitch, three years. 

Jonathan Breeden: You did three years? 

Carlton McDaniel: Yeah. I was in Germany and I was much a family man that wanted to stay around family. So I didn’t want to go back to Germany. And if I re up, that’s where I’d gone back. 

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. I got you. 

Carlton McDaniel: But I did like Germany. It was beautiful. 

Jonathan Breeden: I got you. So you come back from Germany and getting out of the army. What’d you do next? 

Carlton McDaniel: I started with, it used to be Kabivitrum, which was a plant right outside of Clayton. So I was a machinist there. And then after a couple of years, I got on with the postal service. And I was there for 10 years. And so, that’s the progression. Ended up in Garner, in there as a manager in the post office. I’m there. 

Jonathan Breeden: The one on timber drive? Okay. I didn’t know that. That’s where my mail here at my office comes from. I never seemed to go there. I always wondered why 40/42 business area was Garner, but I guess that is the closest post office to [00:03:00] this area. I think what happened was, this area exploded. The post office wasn’t absolutely sure what to do. So they drove. You may have been around when this happened, they made it into like spokes on a wheel. And this was an unincorporated area. And they just said, okay, we’re going to draw it back literally like a pinwheel down highway 50, back to that Garner post office on 50. And then, if you go over the bridge, it’s Clayton. And if you go towards 50 and by the time you get to 50 /42, it’s Raleigh. 

But it’s all Johnston County. 

Carlton McDaniel: It is. One town official told me the post office decides what it wants to. It has nothing to do with everybody else. 

Jonathan Breeden: And they’re federal, so they can go across county lines. They can literally do whatever they want to do. 

Carlton McDaniel: Absolutely. 

Jonathan Breeden: And anyway, no, I’m not going to get started about the mail. That’s not what this podcast is about, but it is a lot slower than it used to be. But anyway, you’re not with the post office anymore. 

Carlton McDaniel: No more. 

Jonathan Breeden: Anyway, so when you left the post office, what’d you do?

Carlton McDaniel: I surrendered to the call to ministry. And so I left the post office, and then I went to Campbell. And I got a degree in Christian ministry, and then I went [00:04:00] to seminary, and I got a Master of Divinity in Christian Education. So I was in a turn, I had been in the Bible study.

And one of the key parts of it was, where is God at work? Where do you want to join Him? I have a sister with special needs that’s a year older than I am. And a data pastor. And so the direction was, I’m going to do something whether it’s in a church or somewhere to help adults with disabilities. 

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. And so when did you come up with the idea to start able to serve?

Carlton McDaniel: I was a national consultant with Lifeway out of Nashville, Tennessee. And I was going to churches across the nation. And I was asking the question, you have people in church that has beautiful voices, why aren’t they singing in the choir? They’re able to serve. Why aren’t some doing helping with the offering plate?

They’re able to serve. And so I had a friend, and I was coming back from trips and we were just talking and I said, you know, sad thing is, the church has to understand that God gave them abilities, and they can serve. And he said, start a nonprofit and prove it. And that’s how it started. It was just that way, and it was, you know what? This could happen. And churches, they’re very [00:05:00] accepting.

But it’s a Sunday night, Wednesday night type thing and I was asking, what did they do Monday through Friday? And I knew my sister didn’t have anything to do. And so it was, could we integrate education, being faith based, community service? Could we bring all that together in a program? 

We started out here on 42 in a 1,200 square foot building with about six people. And just really not sure, we don’t accept government funding. So we were doing two days a week. That’s what we could afford to do. And then as it grew, three days. And then when we moved to the location at Lord of Life Lutheran Church, we leased a 3,800 square foot building, just there. So we use school curriculum. It’s online. We don’t want to be a school, but lifelong learners is an important thing. We do a lot of community service. I know, you know the program Backpack Buddies. 

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah.

Carlton McDaniel: Since 2017. 

Jonathan Breeden: I’m involved with Backpack Buddies. 

Carlton McDaniel: Since 2017, we’ve packed over 20,000 bags for Backpack Buddies. 

Jonathan Breeden: Let’s go back a little bit and talk about, so when was this idea and when did you start able to serve?

Carlton McDaniel: It was in [00:06:00] 2002. We became officially a non-profit in 2003. But I began to ask the questions of people around me, what would you think about this idea? What if we worked out something that said, it’s during the week, a program. I didn’t want to call it a day program because for me, that was a negative connotation.

I didn’t want that label, but people didn’t understand a program that wasn’t called anything. So several years in before we called it a day program. And so that’s where the need was, I have a sister. So it was very easy for me to meet families and them say, wow, if something like that happened, it would be amazing.

Jonathan Breeden: I think of it, and this may not be the right term, as a structured day program, because it provides a structure. It provides education to adults with disabilities. I don’t know, but to me, that’s the way I see it, because you have a structure in what you’re doing with the different classes, and there’s periods, and there’s times, and they change from center to center, and stuff like that.

And it may not be what you want to call it, but I’ve always thought of it a way to stay structured day type program. 

Carlton McDaniel: The only [00:07:00] difference is that the participants, and we call them participants because they participate in everything, in leadership decisions, in places that we go and things that we study. But each classroom stays together, all day long. We do have some rotations, but they stay together all day long. And then at the first of the year, we do some mix up. 

I have people that’s been in my program since 2004. So we know that every year, we have to do more. We have to expand that program because they’re not a teenager anymore. They’re in their 30s. And so how do we do that? And sometimes, the class gets a little too much together. So they don’t understand with the 75 people we have now, there’s friendships in our whole program. So by moving them classrooms once a year, and doing some rotations where we mix up classes, but they literally stay with the same instructor all day. 

Jonathan Breeden: All right, let’s talk about in a minute, what they do? But let’s talk about who do you serve? What types of adults are coming to your program?

Carlton McDaniel: We serve adults with cognitive and physical disabilities. So if it’s a mental health issue, we’re not qualified to take that. The [00:08:00] safety issue aggressiveness, we can’t take. So we have a lot of people with autism, ADHD, down syndrome. The age range is from about 21-63. And people have asked, is it an adult program, and senior adult program? In a way it is, but you have to be able to keep up mobily. You have to keep up with us going, because we’re in the community as much as we’re at that building.

We can’t learn, our folks can’t learn unless they experience it. So we need to learn about shopping, and we need to go shopping. We’ve learned about our town officials because we went to the town and sat in where our town council sits.

And we had council people tell us, this is what we do. This is the decisions we make. So everything’s experiential learning. The community is our best classroom. 

Jonathan Breeden: One of the best stories I’ve ever heard you tell, and this could have been 10 years ago, is when you took your students to go learn how to buy a car.

Carlton McDaniel: Yes. That was the most fun. 

Jonathan Breeden: And the salesman went through the whole thing? 

Carlton McDaniel: Yes. 

Jonathan Breeden: And y’all were haggling the price with him. 

Carlton McDaniel: Oh yeah. 

Jonathan Breeden: Like y’all were gonna buy the car. And you were [00:09:00] talking about the features. And you told that story at a chamber breakfast, it could have been 10 years ago. And I just smiled and laughed because we’ve all bought a car, and we know how car salesmen are, and that salesman really got in it and y’all got in it. Those participants heck. They wanted to take some money off because somebody saw a dent.

Carlton McDaniel: It was at the Jeep dealership. 

Jonathan Breeden: Is that what it was? Okay. 

Carlton McDaniel: It’s kind of universal cars and trucks, but the jeep business. So we had them do the most basic jeep, that kind of the mid level with four doors. And then we had to rock climb and jeep. And so, he had to tell us why, which one we wanted and stuff. And then we would get together and we decide which one, then we would decide how we were going to approach him. It’s funny, the salesman came up to me, we were loading the bus to leave and tear was in his eyes and he said, best sales day ever. Because our folks really put a lot into it. 

And one of the best stories is, Michael, who was in a wheelchair, when the gentleman asked him, he said, why did you pick the middle one? What was the reason you did? Because I know you and Carlton was standing at that rock climber and it’s really like that stuff. He said, my mother couldn’t get in that Jeep.

And the guy [00:10:00] stopped. And when he told me, he said, I’m thinking you can’t get in the Jeep. But he said, my mom can’t get in the Jeep. So we don’t look past, we think sometimes, people with disabilities, it’s inward. They’re always thinking about what they need and those kind of things. And they don’t, they really don’t.

They think about more about others than most of us do. So beautiful people, loyal friends, I’m excited about learning, very curious about all kinds of things. So we’ve done a lot of things that people think that may be mundane, but it’s not mundane to our folks. 

Jonathan Breeden: Do you still regularly go and do the car buying thing? That could have been 10 years ago. 

Carlton McDaniel: Yeah, it was 10 years ago. We haven’t done that lately. The group has gotten so big now. We rarely go as one big group. We have to go a classroom or two at the same time. We have two vans and a wheelchair accessible bus. So with 75 people, it’s a massive thing if we go to one place.

So we hadn’t done that lately, but that was my favorite memory was the Jeep. 

Jonathan Breeden: So we’ve talked about who are the tops of participants. We talked about some of the things you do. So what are some of the skills that y’all try to work on? I know you’re in the [00:11:00] community, do you develop individual plans?

So we’re going to say, with this particular adult, we’re going to work on this or we’re working in general on different skills. How do y’all decide? All of these adults would have had individualized education plans when they were in the public schools. Is there an individualized education plan for able to serve?

Carlton McDaniel: We don’t do a formal one for each one. What we do is, the first of every year, we sit down with parents. And we interviewed them about things that they saw that was strong, things that we needed to work on. And so that goes into the planning of my daughter needs to know more independence in, and they name what it is.

And so, sometimes, the whole class will study it because one person needs it. And sometimes, we follow up with just that one person. Life skills would include everything from using a microwave, which people think is so simple, washing dishes correctly. We’ve even done washing your hands correctly.

We’ve had dentists come in and talk about proper care. So some of it’s hygiene and things. So a lot of it is, our folks are really [00:12:00] good at assembly, things that have a routine to it. So that’s why Backpack Buddies has been so good, that we’ve had a chance to say, this is routine, we changed some of the system where it used to be a week one, menu two, all that kind of stuff.

So we color coded. So if it’s a blue week or orange week, makes it much simpler for our folks that go in and pull out what’s supposed to happen. And then there’s one of our folks is quality control. They look at every bag to make sure it’s got exactly what it needs. So there’s a lot of input just in people would say, y’all just pack bags. No, we don’t. 

We learn how to count. We learn how to put two of this, but only one of those. There’s a lot of task. In the job, you would do that. You would take directions. You would take leadership. All of these things are factored in into what we do. There’s nothing that we don’t do that we don’t follow through like when we learned about town government. 

We had the mayor come and speak and talk about how he served his community and the commitment he had. And then we went to the town council chambers, where our town comes in. And then we met council people and said, how does this work? [00:13:00] What’s the commitment? What is some of the things that you learned being a council person? 

So it’s always a wrap around. Rarely, do we have something to say, we’re just going to go do this. It always has a meaning around it. What is it going to bring? What’s the intrinsic value? 

Even if we go to the farmer’s market and it’s blueberry day. We’re going to bring back blueberries and we’re going to cook something. So our folks learn to cook. We have times where one classroom will cook for the whole group in there. One time to my favorite example is, they created a menu board. And so they had what they did, they served you. So we went in the fellowship hall in that one class. You looked on the menu, you ordered off the menu, and then you talked about the price of it and things. 

Our folks learned that there’s no such thing as free. There’s no free programs. There’s no free food. Everything is paid by somebody. And so that’s been a big thing. God, our country, and understanding that we need to be productive. All of us have something to offer. And so we just make the accommodations so they’re productive. You need that bridge to the community. Sometimes, it’s transportation. Sometimes, [00:14:00] it’s a skill they need to do. We have several of our people that have been employed. And really, when they came in the program, they were unemployable.

But now, our focus is not that. Our focus is community service. So that’s our big thing, networking with churches, networking with civic organizations, the rotary, the civitan club. So we’ve been a part of a big picture saying, there’s not a job that says, this community is better, there’s not a job. It’s the people in it that make the community better, and we need to be that change agent for it. 

Jonathan Breeden: I understand, and you’ve been doing that for a really long time. For people that are not familiar with Backpack Buddies, Backpack Buddies is a program where volunteers get together and they pack backpacks full of food, so that children can take them home from school on Friday afternoons, and have nutritious food until Monday morning when they come back to school.

There’s a lot of kids who go home and there’s just not enough food to eat. And so there are tons of these programs. There’s one at a lot of different schools now. The Cleveland area Backpack Buddies was [00:15:00] on this podcast, a few months ago. You can go back and listen to that program, which Backpack Buddies do you pack for?

Carlton McDaniel: We pack for the Garner schools.

Jonathan Breeden: The Garner schools.

Carlton McDaniel: Yes, but we’re moving into Johnston County. We started in Johnston County. We’re having all kinds of interest in Johnston County. We had 32 teachers, social workers from the Johnston County schools who came and looked at our program. And when they left, they said, you need to be here in our county, tomorrow. 

So that’s why we looked into Johnston County. Where would we move the building that we have? We’ll have instead of 75 participants, 135 to 145 participants. And so that makes a big difference. Where do we have the land worked out? You touched on the idea of the small fee for it. And we do have program fees. But this is the breakdown, if you come in our program and you can afford the program, you only pay 40% of what it cost, we raise 60% for every family. So that’s standard. 

We have families that can’t afford to be in our program. And they get a hundred percent of our assistance. And so there really is not a turn away. [00:16:00] We’ve had families in our program that one person in the family, there were two workers, both of them employed, one got cancer, and for a year or two, they were unemployable. They needed to get through their medical treatments. That kid never paid. We shut down their payments for two years. It says, you don’t need the stress of anything, not even 40%. 

So we’ve done all through the years. We’ve always had either in our program or somebody that came that we’ve made some adjustments to, so that we’re not a place to say, they do have program fees.

The reason we have program fees is, we need buying from the parents. Don’t come in the program and just drop your son or daughter off. We have a bigger idea than that. And so if that’s what you’re looking for, there’s government programs that have day programs. And you read a paper and you do small things, they don’t go anywhere, but you can get it free from the taxpayers expense.

But when you come to us, we want you to be invested. We’re going to invest in you. You need to be invested. And our donors need to hear, there’s a betting process. And so, you don’t just walk in and say, I just want to come here free. There’s a betting process. But it’s very compassionate, [00:17:00] it’s very caring and very understanding of where a family is, before we make decisions.

Jonathan Breeden: So how many days a week do people come? I don’t think, not everybody doesn’t come every day, right? 

Carlton McDaniel: Right. We have five days a week. What’s interesting is, when they’re coming out of the structure program of high school, they immediately need five days. This is what they’ve had. When you get in later stages in life. My sister’s in her early 60’s. And so, she’s out of that, she’s got a lot of friends, and she’s got a lot of connections because of church. She comes two days a week. 

So two days is the minimum. We really think, three days a week is a good number. Because if you’re only two and you miss a couple of days in another week, you really got out of the system of what we feel of what we’re doing. 

So we really offer three to five days. We have people three, four, and five. But the older that they get, the less days that they need. 

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. I didn’t even realize that. And I didn’t realize, people came, five days a week. I really thought they either came two or three. 

Carlton McDaniel: No, you come out of high school. And that’s one of the reasons why we know, we need a facility for these high schools in Wake and Johnston County, [00:18:00] because they’re coming out and they need five days a week.

So right now, we’re have a waiting list. And so when you come in the program, we may be able to say, I know you need five days a week. But we only have two days that we can offer. And so what I really need five, when you’re going to get it. Our building is not going to get any bigger. It’s just not.

So that’s the thing that’s happening now. Johnston County has just intentionally gone down our folks. We’ve helped with Clayton area ministries. We’re more involved with the chamber. I serve on one of the committees in the chamber. So we want to be more invested. We want Johnston County to know about us.

Right now, we’re saying, we’re Southern Wake County, and that’s how we can serve you. But always the plan that we’re going to nestle somewhere in Johnston County in the future. 

Jonathan Breeden: And people, you have families from Johnston County that are in your program. 

Carlton McDaniel: We do. 

Jonathan Breeden: And the program started here in Johnston County and in 2015, it just moved over to Garner. And you’re getting ready to, I think you’re gonna build a building?

Carlton McDaniel: Yes. 

Jonathan Breeden: Is that what you told me? 

Carlton McDaniel: Yes. In the next, less than five years. We purchased the land right next to Lake Benson Park. It’s four hectares. And so the building plan right now shows the facility [00:19:00] of 24,000 square feet. So instead of 75 participants a day, we can have 135 a day. And we’ll have a life skill room where it’s already set up with a washing machine and a dryer and a microwave.

And we have a breakout room where we’re gonna have communities come in and actually serve with us. And so if we’re doing a project, you can come in during the day. And some of our folks can get with you, and so we could be community. 

The one thing that I learned, and I know I’ve got an inside, just because of my sister being a year older.

I was born into a family that has special need. But when we look at people instead of problems, and a lot of people look at people with disabilities and say, wow, that just breaks my heart. That’s where you are. But if I look at the person behind it, then I can look at a person and say, there’s a lot more. If they can’t walk as well as I can, or they can’t read as well as I can, there’s a real person back there, so I can see it.

The other thing is, we look at crisis. Look at all the unemployment. One of the most underemployed group is people with disabilities. But when you look at the community and say, look at the resources that we have and what they can [00:20:00] add to. And all of our folks that have gotten a job in the program was because of the connection they had with a business owner.

So we introduced that. So awareness is a part of it. But awareness has been around for years, and it’s never worked. Don’t bully someone with disabilities. Accept someone with disabilities. If I show you that people with disabilities have a lot to offer, and they can be a meaningful part of the community, and you get to know them, best friends in the world, most loyal friends, then you really do get past the disability.

It’s okay, you have a disability. So we empower our folks that when they’re in the classroom, if I can’t read well, the first thing I want one of our participants to do beside them is say, let me help you. Let me help you read. Or I can do a craft and my fine motor skills are not good, let me be the one.

We don’t want an instructor to be the one that goes around and is like a teacher in the school. We want it interactive. We want them taking charge. We want them leading devotions. We want them leading in the classroom, deciding some things coming about. It’s a much bigger picture than [00:21:00] people recognize in a day program as in we’d go somewhere and then they lead.

What we say is, you come to able to serve, and this is where you start becoming a part of the community because we want you out there. We don’t want this to be your place. We want you to come here, but we want you in your church, in your civic organization, doing things in your community.

Jonathan Breeden: That’s great. And I’m aware of several of the success stories that you’ve had, and I’ve met many of your participants. So how many people are involved now? I know it’s 75 people a day, but not everybody comes every day. 

Carlton McDaniel: No. 

Jonathan Breeden: So how many people, how many participants are in the program, currently?

Carlton McDaniel: We’ll run 35-40 a day. And then with our staff and our volunteers, we’ll have maybe 60 in the building a day. So the building’s packed, even when you say, now we have a Bible Camp one week out of the year. And we’ve had to move it to Aversboro Baptist because when everybody comes, we don’t fit.

We just don’t fit. So we had to go other places and that’s another indication, that we need to be somewhere because it’s logistical difficult to [00:22:00] say, can we use your church? Can we use your fellowship? So this means that we actually can offer the program that we want to pursue, and not have to worry about all those logistics.

Jonathan Breeden: So what time they come in? 8 AM? Do you provide transportation? Is it 8-5? How do they get there?

Carlton McDaniel: It’s from 9-3. We open the doors at 8:30. And then, if someone’s late, we don’t have any fee structure that says, someone was late because of a doctor’s appointment. And a lot of our families will call and say, is it okay if they stay? Because we’re 8-4, as far as staffing goes. 

We do have some parents that say, I’ve got a doctor’s appointment in the morning. Can I drop off at 8? We do that kind of thing. So 9-3 is the structured time in there. We don’t provide transportation. We try to help with JCATS bring some of our folks.

We have GoWake that brings some of our folks. We have a local taxi company that has just been amazing with picking some of our folks up. We started the transportation out here, and realized that we were going an hour route. And we had four people on the van. [00:23:00] So the longer the routes got, the more parents were saying, they’re just on there too long.

So we’re not equipped like having four or five bands that can just go out in the morning and things. So they do come to us. But when they get to us, everything else, everywhere we go, everything is coordinated by us in our vans. 

The other thing is, in the program fees, if a parent’s paying program fees, if we do cookouts, we go to movies, whatever we would do is included in that. So you don’t have to worry that, Oh my gosh, how many places are y’all going, and I got to pay for? Every bit of that’s paid for. So 40% is really, when you say, the cost of the program, you add on when we go places. And when we go to the museums and all that kind of stuff, and we try to plan one big event, somewhere outlandish, once a month.

And then the rest of them are, we do go bowling. I folks love the bowl. So you’ve got to have that in there.

Jonathan Breeden: They do love to bowl. 

Carlton McDaniel: Yes. And we have a look.

Jonathan Breeden: They do love the bowl. 

Carlton McDaniel: You’d never take away bowling. Take everything away. Take lunch away. Don’t take away bowling. 

Jonathan Breeden: Don’t take away the bowling, no.

Carlton McDaniel: But we have local [00:24:00] churches that will allow us to use the gym, and so we can exercise. One of the things that come out every year with our parents in January is, we please help them eat better and exercise more. So we do that incorporating. We have a 25 foot greenhouse that we just had to take down, because it encroached on the land we’re buying and the church’s land.

So it’s down now, but we had a 25 foot greenhouse. So we grew plants, we grew vegetables, we grew spices. And so we would use those to learn to cook with, and cook healthy. 

Jonathan Breeden: Man.

Narrator: Have family law questions? Need guidance to navigate legal challenges? The compassionate team at Breeden Law Office is here to help. Visit us at www. breedenfirm. com for practical advice, resources, or to book a consultation. Remember, when life gets messy, you don’t have to face it alone.

Jonathan Breeden: How can people get involved and contribute to your program? I know you would want people to pray for your program, but how else can they get involved?

Carlton McDaniel: Absolutely. Prayer has been the main thing that’s happened. God’s blew up when you go to businesses and say, would you support us? And they say, what funding do you have? It’s the community, all of that, no government funding. We don’t take government funding. And it’s not because we’re anti-government. It’s because we want it to be faith based. 

We want to turn that program around wherever we want to. We don’t want any strings to anybody. So we’ll come around wherever we want to. What’s made us successful. God’s blessed that money. The second prayer in that’s financial support. [00:25:00] We pay the same thing people think non-profit.

So that’s an issue with the financial support. People think, it is very expensive to operate. So financially, it was wonderful at able to serve that org. You can see all kinds of things that we’re doing. And find different ways to donate, volunteering. We have volunteers that come in for special events. We have volunteers that come in for a full day. We have some that come in multiple days to work in the classroom. Part of our lease in the church is to cut the grass. 

We have expensive equipment that they can volunteer. We have admin positions that we need, somebody to answer phone and things. There’s a host of things on their schedule that they can come in and work and say, this is what I can do, how can you fit us in? And anything you could think about? 

We have some people who have a job skill or a craft skill, and they say, can I come in a day and teach them how to weave? Can I come in and teach this? The variety of ways to do this is literally, I’m just coming in and being a friend, which expands our folks.

They need a network of safety of friends around them that know them. [00:26:00] And they also want to know other people, rather than just always able to serve people. We have outside people. But there’s a hosting, youth groups have come in and done these fun days, where the guys play football and the girls had somebody that they did makeup and things like that.

So the sky’s the limit. 

Jonathan Breeden: That’s awesome. It’s truly a tremendous program. And I’ve known you since the beginning. And it’s unbelievable, from where it started to where it is now. And it says a lot about you and this community, and the support that you’ve done in the program, and the parents, and the participants over the years. And it’s just going to keep going. 

Like I said, you’re going to be there, but another building a bit of a serve more people. You’re doing this without government funds. You’re doing it your way, the way you believe God’s calling you to do it. And there’s something to be said for that because not everybody could have done what you’ve done in this community, as a debt owes a debt of gratitude to you for what you’ve done for these adults with disabilities.

The last question we ask everybody is, and I know the business is now in Garner, but it was in [00:27:00] Johnston County. And you spent a lot of time in Johnston County and you’re involved with the Johnston County Chambers of Commerce. What do you love most about Johnston County?

Carlton McDaniel: The sense of community. It is a very proud of a community that they live in Johnston County. You don’t hear a lot of that in Wake County. It’s not being putting down Wake County, but Wake County is much more institutional feeling. But you come into Johnston County, and it’s not just Clayton that you feel that in. You feel it in Smithfield. So the surrounding areas, I know Garner is very community minded.

But other towns, I don’t know that small feeling of, as far as Wake County as a whole. Johnston County’s pull that together, where I may not be in your town, but I’m in Johnston County. And that’s what I love the most.

Jonathan Breeden: I tell you what, it’s almost what everybody always says here is, it’s the people and the community.

Carlton McDaniel: Absolutely. 

Jonathan Breeden: And the small town feel Johnston County is great. And seriously, if y’all want to get involved able to serve out of work, it’s a tremendous organization called to be glad to have you whatever you want to do, whether it be your church, or your women’s group, your civic organization, there is no limit for the [00:28:00] amount of help that he needs and gets and appreciate.

Seriously, anybody’s considering doing that or has a group looking for the do some community service, or to reach out their community, reach out to able to serve. 

Anyway, that’ll be this episode of The Best of Johnston County Podcast. Once again, if you would be so kind to like, subscribe and follow it wherever you are. Until next time, I’m your host, Jonathan Breeden.

Narrator: That’s the end of today’s episode of Best of Johnston County, a show brought to you by the trusted team at Breeden Law Office.  We thank you for joining us today and we look forward to sharing more interesting facets of this community next week. Every story, every viewpoint adds another thread to the rich tapestry of Johnston County. If the legal aspects highlighted raised some questions, help is just around the corner at www. breedenfirm. com.