COMPLIMENTARY VOL. 25 NO. 10 DECEMBER 2012 OutAndAboutNow.Com Wine And Other Spirited Endeavor
MADE IN DELAWARE Delaware i home to ome innovative companie that create unique product. Thi i one of a erie of article potlighting thee ometime overlooked enterprie. Leigh Corrigan and Chri Rockwell hold bag of Waggie dog bicuit. Going to the Dog Thi nonprofit provide bicuit to canine and meaningful employment to people with intellectual diabilitie By Larry Nagengat photo by Tim Hawk Never to be confued with Alpo or Iam, Waggie by Maggie & Friend may be mall, but it i Delaware own dogbicuit manufacturer. Thank to trong community upport and a mall corp of dedicated volunteer, the nonprofit i now five year old, baking about 2,000 bone-haped bicuit a day in two church kitchen in Brandywine Hundred, and providing meaningful employment to 11 young men and women who have intellectual diabilitie. Call it luck, erendipity, whatever, ay Mary Ann Nolan, preident of the nonprofit organization that he and her friend Leigh Corrigan tarted in 2007 when they realized how weak the job propect were for their 21-year-old daughter and other like them. We knew that people with intellectual diabilitie could be good employee. They have talent, they can learn. They need upport, Nolan ay. Nolan and Corrigan decided to create a program that involved making omething that could eaily be old. The product election wa eay. Dog owner are generally nice people. They like to talk about their pet. They indulge them, Nolan ay. So we decided to do dog bicuit. The women got a recipe from a friend, tweaked it a bit and baked ome tet batche with their daughter, Elizabeth Nolan and Maggie Corrigan. We keep it imple, Nolan ay. We re not fancy, but we re good. Then they tarted looking for a place to do ome eriou baking. I called Aldergate [United Methodit Church]. It wa a cold call, Nolan recall, and the church manager, Royal Lowthert, aid, why don t you come in? When the four met with Lowthert, he recall, They told me what they were looking for, what they wanted to do and why they wanted to do it. Nothing fancy. I took it to the church trutee and they agreed that it wa a wonderful thing to do. More cold call and everal key friendhip have helped Waggie grow.
We went out on a limb we thought [Waggie] wa a good way to develop a buine for intellectually diabled adult, to help them move forward. Janen Market general manager Paula Janen One big break wa an order for 120,000 bicuit, packed two to a bag, from Burn & McBride, the heating oil ditributor, Nolan ay. Terry McBride, a partner in the buine, learned about Waggie becaue he i Nolan neighbor. Since he ha a niece with intellectual diabilitie, he aid he recognize the importance of people with pecial need having meaningful employment, omething they get atifaction from. Burn & McBride include a packet of bicuit with every oil delivery. When we make a delivery, we have to leave a ticket anyway, o we attach a packet of bicuit, McBride ay. I don t think anything we ve ever done ha engendered more poitive cutomer feedback. It tremendou how many people comment on it. Janen Market in Greenville wa one of Waggie firt retail outlet, general manager Paula Janen ay. We went out on a limb, he ay, becaue we thought it wa a good way to develop a buine for intellectually diabled adult, to help them move forward. The bicuit, diplayed at the regiter near the market bakery, have become a popular impule buy, he ay. Another early upporter wa Apropo gift hop, alo in Greenville, where both Nolan and Corrigan have been cutomer. It the only pet food I carry, manager Janet Jornlin ay. When cutomer purchae Waggie, he ay, they re doing omething good for their dog and for the community. Employee at Apropo alo volunteer to help the Waggie baking team, ay Jornlin, who now erve on the organization board of director. Whether they re baking at Aldergate or at St. Paul United Methodit Church (the Waggie team ue each ite two day a week), the routine for the four-hour hift i imilar. One of the 11 crew member (ome work two day a week, other three, earning minimum wage for their effort) meaure the flour, pouring it from large bag into two-cup platic container. The dough maker, uually Matt Montgomery, ue a patula to crape every bit of peanut butter out of a 40-ounce jar and drop it into a commercial-ized mixing bowl. He emptie ix container of flour into the bowl, add ome baking powder and 6 ½ cup of milk, and tart the mixer pinning. Montgomery, a Wilmington reident who tudied culinary art at Howard High School, i one of the few worker who have had outide employment. Two year ago, he ay, he worked for a conceion vendor at Frawley Stadium during Wilmington Blue Rock game. After the dough i mixed, Montgomery hand it over to one of hi colleague, who break off a chunk and run it through a device that flatten the dough to the proper ize for cutting. At one table, Laura Scott, 28, of Middletown, wield a bonehaped cookie cutter, making a many bicuit a poible from a pie-ized piece of dough. A he finihe, he place them on wax paper in a cookie heet. Under the wax paper i a removable platic template that how the proper placement of nearly 100 bicuit on the heet. At the end of another table, Corrinne Wanamaker, 28, of Newark, carrie on a non-top converation a he place the dough on top of an inverted fryer baket and, uing a rolling pin and a mall roller, puhe the dough through the grid to make half-inch cube of Waggiebit kibble. You ue them when Above: Maggie and Friend baker Maggie Corrigan carrie a tray of Waggie dog bicuit to be baked. Right: Waggie dog bicut are cut out for baking.
Going to the Dog continued from page 51 CHEATING On Your Diet IS ALWAYS IN PLAY December Special: Monday ½ off Bottle of Wine Small Plate Available On All Entree Tueday & Wedneday Prime Rib Special $16.95 with Player Reward Card Thurday 777 Delaware Park Blvd. Wilmington, DE 19804 800.41.SLOTS delawarepark.com Shrimp Night $19.95 Stuffed Shrimp, Coconut Shrimp and Shrimp Scampi SLOTS LIVE TABLES RACING GOLF DINING Jut up the road, I-95 DE Exit 4B Video Lottery Agent for the Delaware Lottery. All game are Lottery game controlled by the Delaware Lottery. You mut be 21 to play. Play reponibly. If you or omeone you know ha a gambling problem, call the Delaware Council on Gambling Problem Helpline at 888-850-8888. www.dcgp.org DP-16222 Dec. Out-N-About FoodNBev Ad 4.5x7.indd 1 11/14/12 Something For Everyone. WVUD.ORG 52. M I D 12_MadeInDE.indd 4 you re training your puppy, ay Wanamaker, who ha a baet hound and a Pekingee at home. When they it, you give them a treat. Working alongide the baker are a couple of adult volunteer. Nolan, Corrigan and Chri Rockwell are there mot day, and Pat Muller i in the kitchen twice a week. They pitch in, mixing ingredient, cutting cookie and, mot importantly, carrying on converation with the baker. We don t need many adult [to upervie], Corrigan ay. The worker all know their job. The only thing the paid taff doen t do i operate the oven. Adult volunteer put the cookie heet in the oven and take them out a half-hour later. While the bicuit are in the oven, the worker take their lunch break. On day that Muller i volunteering, he offer a 20-minute yoga eion. It improve their balance, he ay, and relaxe back and houlder mucle after the train of leaning over while preparing the bicuit. When the heet have cooled, it time to pack the treat 40 bicuit or 6 ounce of kibble to a brown paper bag each one with a colorful ticker affixed to decribe the product inide. Waggie come in five varietie peanut butter, chicken and weet potato bone ($6 a bag) and peanut butter and chicken bit ($5 a bag). The treat are fine for human conumption too. We eat them all the time, Rockwell ay. (The peanut butter bicuit tate like a crip, unweetened, peanut butter cookie.) In addition to Janen, Waggie by Maggie are available at more than two dozen location in and near Delaware, including veterinarian, gift hop, and quite naturally, given it name Black Lab Bread in Wilmington. A diner and a ub hop in Ocean City, N.J., ell them too, Nolan ay. A full lit of retail outlet i 12:41 PM available at Waggie webite, waggie.org, where online order can alo be placed. The connection made a the buine grew have helped propel it growth. For example, upervior from Burn & McBride pick up order for upplie and deliver them to the baking ite, Nolan ay. And Janen ha helped in everal way, Paula Janen ay, firt by giving technical advice on licening the product and later by adviing on the purchae of a replacement oven for the kitchen at Aldergate. D O&A 11/23/2012 12:12:05 PM
Nolan and Corrigan are pleaed with Waggie development, and they like the ize of the current operation. They would, however, like to ee ale or grant revenue grow o they could pay omeone to upervie the operation. Alo under conideration, Nolan ay, i replicating the program in another community, either in nearby Pennylvania or Towon, Md., o adult with diabilitie in thoe area would have employment opportunitie. Elizabeth Nolan and Maggie Corrigan, the young women who inpired the buine, are no longer part of the baking team. Elizabeth i now working in a doctor office and Maggie doe janitorial work through Eater Seal. But both come back to handle occaional hift a volunteer. The ucce of the buine ha made Maggie a bit of a celebrity, her mother ay, becaue he known a the Maggie in Waggie by Maggie. It warm inide... The Tate. The Vibe. South Beach. Check out the Sunroom. Perfect for a holiday party that fit your budget. Follow u on On the Summit North Marina at Lum Pond 3006 Summit Harbour Place. Bear, DE 19701. 302.365.6490 www.aquaolretaurant.com Maggie and Friend baker Amy Goodzeit meaure out ingredient for Waggie dog bicuit. Made in Delaware i a new Out & About feature, and we re looking for topic for future article. Send your uggetion about Delaware-made product to writer Larry Nagengat at larrynagengat@comcat.net WWW.OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM 53