Two Friends in Pottstown Refuse to Let Ongoing Pandemic Logistics Interfere

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kencrest people
Image via CBS Philadelphia.
Laura Piasecki and Dave Akers.

When COVID-19 shuttered KenCrest Pottstown, two friends who connected there merely shifted sites. Wakisha Bailey reported this affectionate bond and its geographic agility for CBS Philadelphia.

Like many other area adult daycare service providers for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities, KenCrest, headquartered in Blue Bell, closed during the pandemic.

In fact, KenCrest Pottstown remains closed, more by staffing issues than contagion worries.

However, for Laura Piasecki (KenCrest service enrollee) and Dave Akers (KenCrest volunteer), the pause meant only a slight shift in geography.

They now connect at Liberty Ministries Thrift Shop in Pottstown, where Piasecki works.

She’ll even occasionally recommend fashion items for him, recently suggesting an orange hoodie.

“I really like it,” she said, seeing him in it. “It’s beautiful.”

“I do, too!” Akers replied.

KenCrest relies heavily on volunteers like Akers. Open positions remain a concern, especially as the state seeks a broader inclusivity profile for the organization.  

KenCrest executive director calls its current number of openings “an employment crisis.”

For Akers, his time with Piasecki is a treasure.

“I like to help other people,” he said. “I like to make people’s life a little easier.”

More on this story — including links for Montgomery County volunteers at KenCrest — is at CBS Philadelphia.

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The KenCrest story is, as CBS Philadelphia puts it, about finding the ability in disability.

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