The Old Guy Helps a Nonprofit
I am a 67 year old retired special education teacher. My son, Nick, is 26 years old and is who our dessert truck is named after.
When Nick was 2 years old, I realized that if he was to ever hold a job after graduation from school, it would be up to me.
That is why I bought a trailer in 2018 and opened Nick's Shaved Ice Paradise. We hired 2 other young people who have developmental disabilities and started selling shaved ice in Lubbock, Texas.
Immediately, I started receiving calls from parents of other young people with disabilities asking if their child could also work for us. I realized that the only way we could ever grow was to become a nonprofit. That way we could solicit donations and grants and possibly be able to hire more deserving workers.
In 2022, we sold the trailer and bought a truck, changed our name to Nick's Treats, and now sell shaved ice, ice cream, floats, and more. We have 6 total employees now. Five of our 6 employees have been with us since 2019. They love their jobs and have become very good at them.
One of our employees gained enough confidence to find a year round job at Marshalls.
Here is the difficult part. We are a seasonal business. We are open half of the year but we have many year round expenses. Because of that we are always running at a small deficit. We have to raise about $4,000 to $5,000 each year to stay in business and we have been somewhat successful doing that each year until this year.
I started this blog in February with the intent of passing on my many years experience of being an average bicycle rider who also happens to ride long distance tours often. I decided to donate every bit of the advertising revenue that is generated here to Nick's Treats.
If this blog can generate about 750 views a day, we will raise about $2000 a year. That will be a major lifesaver for this small nonprofit. Imagine if we can generate 2,000 views a day? Right now, because I don't have a lot of good backlinks or enough return visitors, we are only generating about a dozen visits a day but it is slowly and gradually growing. I need your help.
I hope you will bookmark this blog and come back often, or even better, subscribe down below and get each post I write in your e-mail box. Make sure to click on the link in your email so that you will go to the actual blog which generates money for this organization.
You can follow us at facebook.com/nickstreats, instagram.com/nickstreats, and at www.nickstreats.com.
There is even a link at Nick's Treats that you can donate a few dollars to us if you want to. You can find it here too at Givebutter for Nick's Treats.
I do want to let you know that I am the executive director and I am on the truck each time we go out and park and that I am an unpaid volunteer. I have put in over 7,000 hours as a volunteer to get Nick's to where it is. You can rest assured that all of the money raised here is spent on the organization that is solely dedicated to providing safe and meaningful jobs for young people who have developmental disabilities.
I believe this is the most important thing I have ever done and want to see Nick's Treats last long after I am gone. Thank you for your support.
Here is my next blog post: Cycling: A Greenwashed Sport?
