Howell teen wanted to help brother with autism. What he did helps dozens more.

It was lunchtime at No Limits Café in Middletown. Stephanie Cartier, the owner, got waved over to a table of patrons. Someone’s looking for a job, she figured. Happens every day at No Limits, which is staffed almost entirely by adults with intellectual disabilities.

This was different. Collin Smith, a 16-year-old Howell High School junior, was there with his older brother Brandon, who has autism. They gave Cartier a $1,400 check as a donation.

When Cartier heard the story behind it, tears welled in her eyes.

“It’s very nice to get donations, but some really get you,” she said. “This was one.”

This is a story about the coronavirus pandemic, autism and an act of kindness by a big-hearted teen. Forty-eight acts of kindness, actually.

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Floundering at home

Brandon Smith was just about to finish up high school last spring when the pandemic shut everything down. Remote education did not go well; for many with autism, learning is a hands-on experience.

“It was very difficult,” mom Amy Smith said.

Brandon made it to graduation, but then things got harder. Typically, once young adults with autism “age out” of the school system, they enter day programs to stay active and engaged. The pandemic pushed those programs to Zoom, which Amy Smith found ineffective for Brandon and for her — adding to her load as she tried to run her business, an online women’s boutique, from home.

After a few months, when day programs began to open back up in person, they did so at 25% capacity. As a newcomer, Brandon was excluded.

“There was nothing available for him, so he was home doing nothing forever,” Amy Smith said. “He was floundering at home.”

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Brandon plays the piano, so that was something to focus on. Beyond that, though, he spent much of his days Googling the coronavirus and obsessing over it. It was unhealthy.

Collin witnessed this and saw it wearing his mother down.

“I knew other families were struggling with this,” he said.

An idea dawned. He decided to make “relief bags” of gifts for people in his brother’s shoes — Shore-area young adults with autism who had aged out of the educational system. He put out word online and launched a GoFundMe.

At first he hoped to raise $3,000. Twice that poured in, along with 47 requests for relief bags. Six Howell High School seniors — members of the school’s Anytowners peer leadership group — helped make the deliveries: Alexia Rodrigues, Krish Pate, Kyle Nase, Camille Weaver, Emma Zurey and Stefanie Yaegel. Over the final two weeks of October they drove as far north as Hazlet and as far south as Lacey.

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“Kindness goes a long way,” Collin said. “When I was making the bags I knew I was doing something good, but I didn’t know just how much of an effect it would have until I handed out the bags. Watching these special-needs adults go through them and be thrilled with everything, the reaction was just so pure.”

'What a good example'

Each relief bag consisted of gift cards (Amazon, Target, Wawa and Dunkin'), a word-search book, a healthy-cooking book, bubbles and kinetic sand (a no-stick sand for sculpting; a favorite of Brandon’s). The timing was prescient. With COVID-19 cases skyrocketing, the state announced last week that in-person day programs would shut down from Nov. 25 to at least Jan. 19. Brandon, who just last month finally had gotten into a two-day-a-week program, will be back home full-time. So will many others.

“Hopefully this helps,” Collin said

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The bags cost roughly $100 each, which resulted in $1,400 unused from the GoFundMe.

Enter No Limits Café.

The groundbreaking restaurant was cofounded earlier this year by Middletown residents Stephanie and Mark Cartier, whose daughter Katie has Down syndrome. The Cartiers were looking for something for Katie to do after she aged out — they likened it to falling off a cliff. So they opened the café and hired 30 adults with intellectual disabilities to work as greeters, servers and kitchen hands for the New Jersey minimum wage of $11 an hour. Watch the video at the top of this story or the photo gallery below to learn more.

The café was a huge hit at first, but within a month of the grand opening, the pandemic struck. The Cartiers converted it to takeout and delivery, then reopened indoor dining at 25% capacity when allowed.

Still, business took a huge hit.  

“It’s been hard, but we’re keeping it going,” Stephanie Cartier said. “We’re in the same boat as everyone else, but where we’re in luck is we’re a nonprofit. We can take donations to keep us going.”  

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Collin visited along with his mother and Brandon on Nov. 8. After lunch he presented the donation along with a binder detailing the relief-bag operation. Stephanie Cartier was blown away.

“It’s amazing,” she said. “What a good example for other young people. Never mind that he donated to us. One day Collin and his classmates, they’re going to be the people who hire people with intellectual disabilities.”

Jerry Carino is community columnist for the Asbury Park Press, focusing on the Jersey Shore’s interesting people, inspiring stories and pressing issues. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.