Aaron Muderick, the founder of Crazy Aaron’s Thinking Putty, views his business as one big family. His operations are headquartered in Norristown and involve more than 700 people in the Philadelphia region, as well as several organizations with special needs individuals who assemble his products.

“I have my own family, but the putty world family is ourselves, our employees, and all of the individuals in the community who come in Monday through Friday and do product assembly,” he said. “We have a big family to care for and we’re going to keep working hard to make sure they continue to have work.”

One of those organizations that does product assembly for Crazy Aaron’s Thinking Putty is Thorndale-based Handi-Crafters, which has been training individuals with diverse special needs to find employment for nearly 60 years. And as a testament to his long-standing commitment to providing work for the nonprofit, Muderick will be the recipient of the Handi-Crafters’ Best Friend Award.

Handi-Crafters will honor Muderick at its Spring Derby Party on Thursday, June 25 from 6-9 PM at the Phoenixville Foundry. The event was originally scheduled for April 30 but has been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

From the beginning, Muderick was interested in a business model that incorporated workers with disabilities. When his company grew beyond the ability of the first production facility he used, he approached Handi-Crafters.

“We came to them and showed them that we have this putty and that you break it up and portion it and put it in a can, put labels on it, and put it in a box ready for shipment,” he said. “They embraced it very quickly, and I would say more quickly than I expected.”

Since June 2012, Handi-Crafters’ clients have assembled and packaged the many forms of Crazy Aaron’s Thinking Putty, a nontoxic silicone putty that molds, sculpts, stretches, pops, and tears for hours of fun for all ages. The demand for the putty is such that Crazy Aaron’s can sustain a full-time relationship with Handi-Crafters.

“It’s not spot work where we send them one thing every three months; it’s every week,” said Muderick. “They drop off the finished product at our facility and pick up new material, then go back and work at their site for the week. It’s every week, coming and going.”

A Handi-Crafters client might work on one or more of the various steps in the assembling and packaging of Thinking Putty. For example, a worker could be checking to make sure the supplies are in order; portioning or breaking up the putty and making sure it is weighed correctly; placing it in the container; affixing labels to the container; or heat sealing and boxing to prepare it for shipping. Clients can specialize in just one of those tasks, or do a different task each day to gain different skills.

Muderick likes the bright, clean, safe, and organized environment he finds on his visits to Handi-Crafters when his schedule permits. But he is just as impressed with the quality of work done on his putty product.

“There are individuals on each team who are clients themselves and have a particular attention to detail to check work and make sure things are correct,” he said.

Handi-Crafters also has some of its own staff conduct an additional level of quality inspection before the product is ready to ship.

“They have a really good team, and the clients there are really committed to the process and they know what they’re doing,” said Muderick. “They are an A+ operation, and when we send them work, we know it will come back on time, complete, and the quality will be good.”

Above all, what Muderick likes most about Handi-Crafters is the relationships he has made with the clients who are so committed to his product.

“It’s always nice to go back and check in because I’ve had the opportunity to develop some nice one-on-one relationships with different clients,” he said. “I enjoy that very much. One of the reasons we chose this business model is because of relationships like these.”

Click here to purchase tickets to the Spring Derby Party or to learn more about the sponsorships that are available. For further information, contact April Ennis-Pierson at 610-384-6990 ext. 206 or april.ennis-pierson@handi-crafters.org.

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