Unique Like Me Features Handmade Products Created By Students With Disabilities

In a workroom in a recently opened store, Unique Like Me, special education student Michael Sansavera raises his black eyebrows and flashes a smile when asked whether he enjoys folding children’s menus for Bob Evans restaurants. He presses a few icons on his communications computer.

“I also like to run the dishwasher,” Michael said through his computer.

Special education student Lynnie Parr said she enjoys rolling glue to create handmade greeting cards in time for Valentine’s Day.

Michael and Lynnie are among more than 50 special education students, age 16 to 22, with multiple disabilities who are learning a variety of vocational skills that will help them land a job after they have completed their education. As student workers, many of them perform jobs at about 20 businesses throughout Lake County.

Unique Like Me, which recently opened at 9179 Mentor Avenue, sells a wide range of handmade products created by Lake County special education students. The store is owned and managed by the Lake County Educational Service Center. The Center operates programs for individuals with disabilities for Lake County’s nine school districts and surrounding counties. The Center also runs the Lake County Vocational Training Consortium.

The Center decided to open a storefront in Mentor to build public awareness about the work skills and talents of persons with disabilities.

The 1,000-square-foot Unique Like Me store features dozens of handmade jewelry, greeting cards, tableware trinkets and other personal item created by special education students. The store also carries consignments items such as clothes from Downs Design, handmade jewelry by Haley Berman and warming pads made by students at Broadmoor School. The store also houses a workroom where students make their products, a small kitchen and restrooms.

“We teach them how to start a job, how to end a job, how to ask for help or assistance when they are working on a job,” said Julie O’Neil, director of special education at the Lake County Educational Service Center in Painesville. “We give them a variety of opportunities, but when we find something that they are really good at then we work with them to develop their skills.”

O’Neill is hoping that local businesses will use Unique Like Me as a resource to find student workers to perform various job assignments at their workplace. This gives students the opportunity to develop additional job skills and to work with other co-workers and supervisors.

The special education students work at a variety of local businesses such as Endura Plastics, LaMalfa Party Center, Aladdin Rents, Willoughby Brewing Co. Apollo Products, Lake Health Systems, Lakeland Community College, Lake Farm Parks. They also work at churches and libraries. The students perform all types of jobs in the areas of maintenance, assembly, sorting, computer data entry and processing, cleaning, office work, food preparation and other kitchen work, and landscaping.

Unique Like Me is open from 9 a.m. to 2 pm. Monday-Friday. Later this month, the store will have extended hours on Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Business owners who are interested in hiring students for work assignments should call Julie O’Neil at 440-350-2563, extension 746 or joneil@lakeesc.org.