When the ice cream season returned in the spring, there was one shop that had been looking forward to reopening for a different reason than most. They weren’t planning to keep the money.

The Nightlight Ice Cream stand is operated by the Nightlight Foundation, a fundraising group to support autism programs, was always meant as a way to connect with the community. “We use it as a vehicle to achieve two goals,” said Alex Viele, board director. “One is visibility. It’s really nice that the community is aware what we’re doing.”

The Nightlight Foundation started in late 2014 to “address life-long living choices that support individuals with autism through affordable housing, continuing education and vocational options within their own community. Our principle objective is to design, build, acquire and manage residential facilities that will assist adults with autism transition from at-home living into a supported and supervised long-term living environment.”

Their ice cream and water ice stand was the idea of Dave Masterson and Damien Park, friends of Nightlight Foundation’s founder Alex Viele. Masterson managed the Nightlight stand at 1020 Bethlehem Pike in Erdenheim from opening day in 2016 to the end of last season. Hayley Dennis came in as manager when they reopened for the 2021 season in April.

There are about a dozen staff rotating through the stand during a week. Most are volunteers from Springfield High School.

Some positions are vocational training, filled by learning-disabled students from Nexus or Springfield Township.

“The other goal that we attempt to achieve is to create some kind of opportunity and experiences, and maybe a little bit of vocational training for individuals who have intellectual disabilities, or autism, or both,” said Viele. “That’s been really, really rewarding. One of biggest challenges about COVID was that piece of it had to come to a halt.”

For the past five years, the Nightlight Foundation has been collecting funds with a mission to provide housing for adults in the community with autism and intellectual disabilities. Now they feel it has reached a level where they have enough to invest in a program. The Foundation is meeting with similar organizations and exploring a potential partnership to reach more families by combining resources.

Viele’s son Spencer was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at age 3. There are school programs and therapy support for children, but Viele recognized that this support ends when a child reaches adulthood. He also realized others in the community were in the same situation, and this lead to creating the foundation.

Spencer, now 21, graduates from the Nexus School this June. He’ll be enrolled in adult services at that point. Public aid is difficult, relying on an inconsistent network of availability around the country, or even within the state. The goal for Viele is to find services for his son that will “try to make his life as fulfilling as possible as an adult.” This could be partnering on a group home, or investing in an existing program.

Now that they’re preparing to launch the next phase, they had one last hurdle: Reworking their fundraising campaign for a post-pandemic reality.

“We ordinarily do a fundraiser in the month of April,” Viele said. “It coincides with Autism Awareness Month.” Usually the shop opens the first weekend in April as well.

“The shop itself does not generate a tremendous amount of revenue for the foundation,” said Viele. “Anything that we make that goes above covering our expenses goes to the foundation.”

Normally, there would be a fundraising raffle and dinner at MaGerk’s in Ft. Washington. Last year, and this year, it’s been online on social media. Viele has discussed this at board meetings recently. “I don’t know if I feel comfortable going to a lot of these small businesses and soliciting them for donations for a raffle when so many of them have suffered so much during COVID.” In June they sent out a newsletter announcing a new online campaign. “And the donations are coming in, which is really nice.”

More about the Nightlight Foundation, or donate to their annual drive.