Neesy Gots Worms!

Not too long ago, I received an email from Daric Lennard inquiring about the possibility of having me link over to his daughter’s small worm business site. Learning some of the backstory via our email exchange, I asked Daric if he might be interested in writing an article about his daughter’s business instead.

Some of you may recall my article about young Ryan Reynolds and his worm business (see “He’s 7 Years Old…and He’s Got Worms“). Well, this one is similarly inspiring, and I’m really glad Daric took the time to send me a note (and was willing to share his daughter’s story).

Neesy’s Story

By Daric Lennard

I guess you can say this story started when my autistic and mentally challenged daughter Denise (Neesy) was 4 years old. Her mom had been in the yard, doing some gardening when she spotted some worms that had washed up unto the sidewalk after a rain. She pointed them out to my daughter and THAT WAS IT. Immediately her love affair with worms was going full force. She would spend hours watching worms crawl all over her hands, digging them up, looking in spots where she would think she could find them, and really got to be an expert on finding the biggest ones in the yard.

Jump ahead 12 years later. Neesy’s love affair with worms has not changed. She still searches when she has time, but now her interests have been more focused on getting a job. To be honest, most people that know my daughter find her very bubbly, and she has a warm heart that will make anyone smile. But the job market in PA is not what it should be, and people are scrambling to find work. Most experts in the mental disability field have told us that finding a job for our daughter would be impossible. So late one night, I sat up thinking about our plight. How can I get my daughter a job? What kind of job could she really hold? It was puzzling, to say the least. Then it hit me…. why not find a business that she could help run? Dad and mom could help with the finances, and she could provide labor.

It was only a matter of moments after that when the idea to start a worm farm came along. After all, who better to raise worms than an autistic girl whose splinter interests are insects and worms? SO, last month (March, 2010), we started a website for my daughter and ordered a bunch of worms. The worms are fine, no signs of migration at all, and they are actually showing signs of making great castings. The idea of packaging the worm tea was another late night revelation. Denise is currently selling a 2 OZ and a ½ OZ. Bag on her site, which can be found at {LINK REMOVED – Someone seems to have taken over the site for spammy purposes}.

She is getting castings TEMPORARILY from a friend locally, but that will soon change once the castings start to grow here at home. She packages every bag by herself, weighing and ironing shut the bags. She works a little every day, because she gets bored easily, but does package each order herself. She has gotten her first fruits of the business, and bought a camera (pink, of course) so she can take pictures of, what else, her worms! In the pictures you can see her filling a bag in the backyard. She really does most of the work, we just make sure to keep her on task.

I am really very proud of my daughter, since she has overcome many people’s negative thoughts about not being able to do what every 16 year old wants to do… work and make money. It just shows what wonderful things can happen when you think positively, not negatively.

Thanks again to Daric and Neesy for sharing their story! Any support you can provide for this budding young entrepreneur will be greatly appreciated – here again is her website:
{LINK REMOVED – Someone seems to have taken over the site for spammy purposes}.
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