She thanks him, not realizing he has just informed her
of one of this region’s most popular and historical board-walk
july 2017 40
WBM
mom-and-pop donut shops. She receives a nugget
of information that might not have been available from
baristas at a corporate coffee shop more concerned with
serving the next person in line.
Or at least, that’s how Caroline Keeler feels.
“How many times do you go in some place and you
get somebody who doesn’t want to be there, who certainly
doesn’t make you feel better for having come in?” she says.
As a physical therapist, she has worked with clients with
various issues including IDD, as well as with their parents,
in their goal to “recover to a degree to participate in life.”
Her first visit to Bitty & Beau’s Coffee did not disappoint,
and even echoed the goal she tries to achieve at work:
“Here, everyone is so happy, and there is a pure simplicity
about it and it’s just a nice interaction,” Keeler says.
Pat McCarthy is a retired educator who worked in
special education in Maryland and says Bitty & Beau’s
Coffee is a model program that has had her support from
the start.
“Planning, even at the elementary level, we would sit
in team meetings with very young children trying to start
a program that would lead to the vision of these children
having a dignified adulthood,” she explains.
Left, top to bottom: Grant Smith on World Down Syndrome
Day, March 21, 2016. Pastor Mike Ashcraft with Stephanie
Glatt and Julie Ashcraft in January 2017. A map hanging
on the wall displays push pins marking the locations from
which guests have visited. Above: Bitty & Beau’s Coffee is
located in the former Hummer dealership building on the
Rippy Cadillac parking lot.
PHOTO BY ALLISON POTTER PHOTO BY MATTHEW RAY PHOTO BY MATTHEW RAY
PHOTO BY ALLISON POTTER
Changing the way people value other people.