Justin DeVries has a one-man assembly line at his dinning room table. In his farmhouse south of Colfax — headphones and iPod providing musical motivation — for the last two months DeVries has been manufacturing a special kindling for campfires, fireplaces and backyard barbecues.
Justin is a 17-year-old with autism. But the soon-to-be high school senior has been preparing for life after graduation from the PCM school district.
His assembly line makes the sole product for his business Justin’s Easy Spark Fire Starter.
The idea behind Easy Spark came from Justin’s mother Lee Anne and in-home respite provider Janet Rinehart. Lee Anne found another young person with autism online doing a similar project, so tried to make contact in hopes Justin could join their business. There was no response, so the DeVries family decided to help Justin start his own.
Lee Anne and Rinehart found the idea for the fire starter recipe on Pinterest, gathered materials and created a Facebook page to market and take orders. Justin started small, gaining clients from friends and congregation members at the First Baptist Church of Colfax where the DeVries family attends Sunday services. But the product has quickly caught on, selling dozens of 10-count packs of the fire starter.
One of his biggest sales, Lee Anne said, has been to John McLaughlin of Colfax, the family’s corn and soy bean seed supplier. John and his wife Regina were leaving for a camping trip May 25, and said they planned to use Justin’s fire starter and spread the word about this product.
“I think it’s great, especially with Justin’s autism, that they’re doing this,” John McLaughlin said. “I thought I’d try to help out and give then to fellow and neighboring campers. I’m going to promote it a bit for him.”
The business is made possible through donated materials. Lee Anne and Rinehart have placed drop boxes throughout Jasper County including Monroe Foods, Robert’s Bros. True Value in Prairie City and the First Baptist Church of Colfax.
Once the donated materials are collected, Justin makes the fire starter by hand. He takes a muffin pan, places a cut egg carton inside and layers the saw dust, paper and melted candle/crayon wax. Justin makes roughly ten, 10-count fire starter packs in a 2.5-hour work session.
The product is chemical free and made of 100 percent recycled materials, which is stated on the green label Justin attaches to each brown paper sack, along with the “Made in the U.S.A.” logo and Justin’s personal story.
Lee Anne and Rinehart do all the hot work for safety reasons— which entails melting the candle or crayon wax. But the rest of the process belongs to Justin, including that pesky task of workshop clean-up.
“He sweeps the floor after we’ve made a mess with the saw dust, and he shreds the paper. He loves to shred the paper,” Lee Anne said. “To shred the paper he doesn’t need mom.”
Before beginning Easy Spark Fire Starter, Justin received employment services at the Christian Opportunities Center in Pella. But the program lost funding, and could only provide outside employment supports.
“They have to go out and work in the community, and some kiddos can’t work out in the community very well,” Lee Anne said.
The paper shredding step of the process was not new to Justin when he began the business, as its a life skill activity the 17-year-old completes at PCM High School.
Rinehart is employed by Justin to provide community and life skills training, but she’s been with the DeVries family for years. She’s worked with Justin since his was 4 years old, first as a paraprofessional at school and now in his home.
“This keeps him motivated, it keeps him active and he knows that this is his job and he does the work,” Rinehart said. “Our goal is for him to just be engaged with life, to have growth and community and contact with people and interaction with us. I think it serves those goals.”
To place an order for Justin's Easy Spark Fire Starter or donate materials, message him on the company's Facebook page or call Lee Anne DeVries at 515-979-3563.
Contact Mike Mendenhall at mmendenhall
@jaspercountytribunecom