Memories Of Uncle With Down Syndrome Fuel Special Ed Teacher's Passion Project

PLAINFIELD, IL — Coffee with Character, a passion project in the works by Timber Ridge Middle School special education teacher Morgan Crackel, may currently be in its planning phase, but the seed for its inception was planted years ago.

Growing up, Tom, her uncle with Down syndrome, made a lasting impact on her life. As a Special Olympics swimmer, Tom often brought the family together to hang out at the pool and watch him swim. Together, they were able to experience many of his accomplishments with him, she told Patch.

Although he was her mother's brother, Tom was like a sibling to Crackel, she said.

"He and I were super close," Crackel, 33, said. "He just had the best personality — super funny but just really emulated what I want to be as a person, just very positive. He made me realize what the world needs. He really just had a positive outlook on everything."

She credits her goal and desire for inclusion to Tom, too.

"He taught me what it meant to be patient," she said. "I think at a young age, walking around with someone with Down syndrome who looks different can be intimidating as a child, right? So learning that his differences were something to be proud of rather than something to be nervous about is something I'm so grateful that I was raised with."

And if there's one thing abundantly clear about Crackel, it's that she's innately passionate about what she does.

"He is who I wrote my college entrance essay about," she said. "I really feel that he has shaped me to be the person I am today, no doubt."

Memories of Uncle Tom are imbued in the very fibers that form Coffee with Character, Crackel's passion project. With her coffee truck employing young adults with developmental disabilities, Crackel plans to travel to high school football games and sell coffee — not only providing sports fans with caffeine but her employees an opportunity to serve the community and practice their vocational skills.

A part of Tom, who died when he was in his 50s, will live on through Coffee with Character. Each mug, along with the brand's logo, will showcase his handwriting. Even the word itself, "character," embodies Tom, Crackel said.

"I just think that that word 'character' embodied who my uncle was," she said. "He was a character. He had more character than anyone I've ever met."

As someone who journaled, Tom had plenty of books filled with notes — chronicling who visited his house, what that week's NFL's lineup was and more — that Crackel was able to bring to an Oswego company that pieced together his letters to form the logo's "character."

Crackel's grandma — Tom's mother — was her first customer, receiving a Coffee with Character mug last Christmas.

"She got a coffee cup to be my official first customer because I really credit who my Uncle Tom was to my grandma," she said.

To learn patience, inclusion and love from someone with Down syndrome, as was Crackel's case knowing Tom, isn't an experience everyone can share. But through Coffee with Character, Crackel said her goal is to foster inclusivity not only for her two children but for her students and the community as a whole.

"I don't have any other family members who have Down syndrome, at least not at this moment," she said. "I want my kids to be raised around people with different abilities. And so that's kind of where this coffee shop comes in mind. It's something that I want my kids to grow up, you know, being a part of a community that's inclusive."

When Crackel was studying to get her master's degree in special education, she took a course that taught preparing students with disabilities to graduate high school and get a job — one with meaning as opposed to one that might constitute busy work. That class sparked something in Crackel.

"It really turned a light bulb on for me about the fact that meaningful employment for people with disabilities is something that's so important," she said. "That idea of meaningful employment for people with disabilities, putting them in the position to be able to serve their community and give them purpose [is still relatively new]."

Of her uncle's experience, Crackel said he took workshops where he was given tasks to complete. But they weren't always outwardly meaningful ones.

"Could he have had a job that served a purpose? Yeah, he could have," she said. "But he lived in a generation where that really wasn't a thing yet, you know? ... I know people with disabilities who vacuum when the bank closes at night, things like that. My uncle absolutely could have done but was never really afforded the opportunity because our society really just wasn't there yet."

For six years, Crackel has been working with children with special needs at Timber Ridge. She started in Plainfield School District 202 11 years ago — first working for a year as a physical education teacher at Heritage Grove Elementary School before switching to Timber Ridge, where she continued in PE before making the "clean, easy switch" to special education.

Now, her students and family aren't the only ones supporting the coffee truck. In the two weeks since starting a GoFundMe campaign — one she said she didn't expect to take off but started after encouragement from her students — she has raised more than $5,500, bringing in almost triple what she thought was already a "lofty" $2,000 goal.

With the money raised, Crackel plans to buy and rehab a trailer that will be the future home of Coffee with Character. With a goal to be operating by the next football season, she plans to employ students in their transition phase, meaning ages 16 to 22. And working at a coffee shop, she said, will serve as a great resume booster for young adults.

"I think that high school football games would be the perfect place for a coffee shop," she said. "I can employ people from all over the area, and you can travel to different high schools and give them the opportunity to serve their specific community. I think it's cool to see students with disabilities in action."

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