Publisher’s Note: This Chester County Leadership profile of Amy Rice was originally published in April 2015.

Handi-Crafters runs one of the largest employment and disability focused support service programs in Southeast Pennsylvania.

Located in Thorndale, Handi-Crafters helps over 400 men and women, individuals with disabilities ranging from Down syndrome and cerebral palsy to mental illness and traumatic brain injuries, gain skills and find rewarding employment in the community or in Handi-Crafters’ own Skill Development Center.

Amy Rice, Handi-Crafters’ Executive Director since 2004, is responsible for overseeing her organization’s daily operations as well as keeping her management team and board of directors abreast of the constantly shifting state and federal workplace rules and funding requirements.

Except for a few years spent at miscellaneous jobs in the business world, Rice spent her entire career working with special needs children and adults either in a classroom setting at the Intermediate Unit or West Chester School District or in the workplace.

When we spoke last week, Amy Rice shared her memories of growing up in Wilmington, working at Mosteller’s Department Store in West Chester, her winding career path to Handi-Crafters in 1996 and how a piece of Buddhist philosophy heard years ago, helps her resolve difficult challenges she encounters every day.

VISTA Today: Where did you grow up?

Amy Rice: I grew up in Brandywine Hundred which is north of Wilmington and went to Brandywine High School. At the time, Brandywine High School was one of the elite public high schools in Wilmington. 98-percent of our 1964 graduating class went on to some form of higher education.

VT: What do you remember from your time in high school and the 1960’s?

AR: Of course I remember where I was when JFK was shot. I was in the pep rally for the big football game the next day against Mount Pleasant High School, our cross-town rivals. The announcement the president had been shot ended the pep rally.

VT: Did you head right to college after high school?

AR: No, I ended up getting married right after high school and being a wife and a mother. It wasn’t until 1972 that I started college.

VT: What was your first job?

AR: Aside from babysitting when I was a teenager, my first real job was at Mosteller’s Department Store in West Chester. At the time, my then husband was going to college at West Chester and Mosteller’s hired me I as a holiday worker in the women’s clothing department for the Christmas season. I remember helping men pick out presents for their wives.

VT: What lessons did you take from that job that still stay with you today?

AR: I liked going home with money in my pocket I had made. That experience was the beginning of wanting to get out of the house and do more than just be a wife and mother. I knew, even though I didn’t know how, that I was going to college.   When I made the decision to start college the following year, my grandmother paid my tuition. By that time, I had three children plus a part-time job as a reading specialist in the West Chester School District. To take care of my family responsibilities, I went to school at night and during the summers.

VT: When did you graduate?

AR: I graduated from West Chester with a BA in English in 1976 and immediately got a job with the Chester County Intermediate Unit as an assistant in a Special Ed class.

VT: What did you do after college?

AR: When I graduated, I got a full-time job teaching at Chester County Intermediate Unit. When I finished my Special Ed certification I immediately started working on my Masters Degree at Penn State Great Valley. By now, I was divorced with three kids. I hit bottom and quit working on my Masters degree and quit my IU job as well. I took a couple of jobs in the business world hoping to earn more money to sustain my family. None of those jobs worked for me and eventually I ended up at the ARC of Chester County teaching one of their early intervention classes.

From there I took a job running an integrated day-care for KenCrest at the Paoli Presbyterian Church. The KenCrest job was one of the most interesting and rewarding positions I ever had. All the classes were integrated and had a balanced mixture of non-disabled and special needs kids. In preschool, special needs kids are not all that far behind their non-disabled peers, their differences are not as pronounced. Watching the kids grow up together was rewarding.

VT: How did you get from KenCrest to Handi-Crafters?

AR: When KenCrest closed the centers in 1996, I interviewed and finally got a program specialist job at Handi-Crafters. I was in the Handi-Crafters’ job a little over a year when during a staff meeting, without warning, the then executive director named me acting director of the rehab department. Then when that executive director left a few years later, one of the board members suggested I apply for the position. I took his advice and in 2004 became Handi-Crafters’ Executive Director.

VT: You’ve been at Handi-Crafters going on 19 years. Why so long?

AR: Typically, I only worked five years or so in a job before moving on to something else. Handi-Crafters is the longest job I’ve had. I guess you have to settle down sometime! Seriously, every day is different here.

We have over 300 people working now and another 100 or so people in other programs. We serve a wide range of clients from mentally handicapped to hearing and visually impaired. We also have veterans from Coatesville VA Hospital trying to get back into the workforce. We have people who are offenders and recently out of prison; Everybody is mixed together, and oddly enough, it really works.

VT: What are the challenges and opportunities before you in 2015?

AR: The challenge is to meet the new state criteria while keeping work on the floor for our clients. The new state mandates call for centers like ours to be integrated and to have a very aggressive employment program, both of which we have had in place for many years. On the work side, since the economy is doing better we’re flooded with work.

On the opportunity side, I see nothing but growth for Handi-Crafters with more and more people and populations being involved. On the program side, we’re looking to leverage new employment ideas including creating a box lunch catering business, ideas that give our clients a chance to be part of the community while remaining part of Handi-Crafters.

VT: What is the best piece of advice you ever received.

AR: The best piece of advice I ever received came from Buddhist philosophy. When you find yourself having a problem, stop struggling with it. Let it just settle. I try to remember that when I’m all twisted up trying to figure something out or get something done. I just say, stop, and back away. Like trying to untie a knot in a piece of rope. If you struggle with it, all you do is make it tighter. I find just stopping and stepping away works.