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One farmer’s budding relationship with the community is changing the stigma surrounding people with disabilities By Bro o ke S pach | Photography by J ohn Mi chael Si m pson
bout a half-mile off of N.C. 54 Academy in Carrboro. The and down a gravel road lined Department of Public Instruction with towering pine trees, closed the charter school just you’ll find Blawesome 10 days before the start of the Farm – if you know 2015-16 school year due to where to look. Built attendance discrepancies. on a sloping hillside “We started to question what nestled into the woods, the 4.5a formal education meant for acre property isn’t where most Raimee,” Rebecca says. “What would expect to find a flower does a [high school] diploma mean farm, says co-founder and designer for him when 90% of adults with Rebecca Sorensen. But for she autism are unemployed?” She and and her son Raimee Sorensen, her husband, Keith Sorensen, 25, co-founder and primary farmer recalled how Ramiee enjoyed at Blawesome, the location is his past experience with farming ABOVE White Lite sunflowers have pale ivory petals with a perfect – just a few hundred feet while volunteering with the Eco mustard yellow center. The blue pigment is from a treatment from their homes. Institute at Pickards Mountain. that protects the seeds from diseases as they germinate. OPPOSITE PAGE Rebecca Sorensen and Raimee Sorensen. “First and foremost, we’re a farm “We would notice on the days and flower design studio, and we that he came home from there, have an amazing product,” Rebecca says. “And secondly, we’re a local farm he had more energy, he was more centered,” she says. “Instead of that is owned and operated by a young man with a disability. So when you stressing him out to get a piece of paper that probably wasn’t going support us, you’re not just getting a really beautiful, locally grown product, to do him any good, [we thought], ‘Let’s find something that’s going but you’re supporting a young man with a disability to have meaningful to put him on the path to his greatest joy and independence.’ So, we work in the world. Everything about this should feel good.” started a farm.” The path to operating a farm was a long one and began back in Ramiee and Rebecca started planting in spring 2016 on a 2015 when Raimee was preparing to enter 11th grade at PACE quarter-acre plot of land by their home. When an adjacent piece of 74
chapelhillmagazine.com September/October 2022