Housing nonprofit, ice cream truck provide opportunities to people with disabilities

CINCINNATI (WKRC) - A local ice cream truck made a special visit to tenants from Inclusive Housing Resources Tuesday afternoon to provide ice cream treats to people with disabilities. The Special Neat Treats ice cream truck also employs people with special needs.

Tenants received a sweet treat on a gloomy day. It brought a smile to many faces. And what’s going on behind the ice cream truck window is incredible.

“My wife came up with the idea of Special Neat Treats, a play on words for the two special needs children that we have, Mary and Josh,” Joel Wegener, owner of Special Neat Treats, said. “It's helped [Mary] to see how I've interacted with people and trying to build her confidence and interacting with people that she doesn't know.”

Throughout the week, Special Neat Treats will be making stops at Inclusive Housing Resources’ properties located throughout Hamilton and Butler counties. IHR provides affordable, accessible housing to those with disabilities.

“Special Neat Treats is very near and dear to our heart because we believe that everyone deserves an opportunity to live a fulfilled and accomplished life. We do that through housing, but Special Neat Treats does that through their ice cream truck,” Gina Gehm, CEO of Inclusive Housing Resources, said.

“We are both here to help those with various abilities have the opportunities to live independently, whether that be through employment or housing,” Gehm said. “Giving back to the community by bringing treats to our tenants from an ice cream truck focused on giving job opportunities to people with special needs seemed like a winning combination.”

Currently, Special Neat Treats only employs Mary and Josh, but the owners hope their story inspires other families across the nation to do something similar spotlighting and giving opportunities to those with special needs.

“It seems so small, and yet it's those small things sometimes in life that give hope and joy, and we just feel like God's given us an opportunity to really share a simple ice cream and make people's day,” Wegener said.