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VOL.19, NO.4
F O R
P E O P L E
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5 0 APRIL 2022
More than 125,000 readers throughout Greater Baltimore
Parents of adults living with autism
I N S I D E … BALTIMORE BEACON — APRIL 2022
PHOTO COURTESY OF SHELLY MCLAUGHLIN
By Simone Ellin Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night nor COVID-19 can keep David Marmer from the Hunt Valley Giant supermarket, where he has worked for the past 11 years as a part-time courtesy clerk. With the assistance of a job coach from the Abilities Network, a Maryland nonprofit that provides support and community for individuals with disabilities, Marmer, 35, is responsible for bringing shopping carts left in the parking lot back to the store. “It’s a job that plays to his strengths,” said Marmer’s mother, Ellen, 69. She and David’s father, Jay, both Pikesville residents, feel fortunate that their son, one of approximately 5.4 million Americans with autism spectrum disorder, has steady employment. After all, some estimates of unemployment rates for individuals with autism are as high as 85%. April is Autism Acceptance Month, a time for promoting the full inclusion of people with autism spectrum disorder in our communities. In recent years, numbers of autism diagnoses have skyrocketed; one in 44 American children were diagnosed with the developmental disability in 2021.The rise in diagnoses has brought deserved attention to children with autism and their families. Yet little attention is paid to individuals on the autism spectrum after they “age out,” at 18 or 21, of many government entitlements and school-based autism programs. Aging parents must scramble to find resources for their adult children at a time when parents of neurotypical children are reaping the benefits of an empty nest. “I had a parent once tell me that after 18, it’s a desert. There’s just very little out there,” said Peter B. Crino, M.D., Ph.D., professor and chair of University of Mary-
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SPECIAL PULL-OUT SECTION
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A service with something for everyone By Stuart Rosenthal Here’s a story about a new business that might appeal to you as a potential customer or as a potential employee. And it all spins off a very basic household chore: doing the laundry. Are you the kind of person who hates doing laundry? Maybe you see it as a Sisyphean task that never gets easier, only harder. Or you might just regard it as a necessary evil that wastes time and energy. On the other hand, there are those who dearly love doing the laundry (I’m told). Some find it relaxing, meditative even, giving one an opportunity to clear the mind and feel refreshed with the smell of newlycleaned clothes. If you could take it or leave it, would you be more likely to do it happily if someone paid you $15 to $20 an hour for it? Enter SudShare, a new company based in Baltimore that attempts to do for laundry what Uber did for transportation: provide a quick and convenient solution to a common consumer problem, while giving ordinary individuals the opportunity to make money on their own terms, using items they already possess (a car, in Uber’s case; a washer and dryer, for SudShare). As with Uber, the service depends on a smartphone app (though SudShare has introduced a toll-free phone number to enable those without smartphones to be customers). When you have a load of laundry to be done, you open the app on your phone, indicate what you need, and a nearby “sudster” — one of the folks willing to do your laundry for you — will come to your home, pick up your dirty laundry, and return it washed, dried and folded within 24 hours. Sudsters use the app to decide whether to accept or decline a nearby request for pick-up, keeping in mind that those who more readily accept new jobs are also more likely to be offered more such jobs.
Baltimore start-up The idea for the company began in Baltimore, in a home with five children (including a set of triplets) whose mother, Ari Fertel, home-schooled them for their early years. When 15-year-old son Nachshon heard his mother cry out in frustration at the never-ending chore of doing the family laundry, he had an epiphany: maybe he
could develop an app for that! The enterprising young man soon developed the Uber-like concept that would rely on ordinary homeowners with time on their hands to take on the gig work of doing laundry for others. The self-taught app developer spent a couple of years developing and refining the program, all while in high school. The company started up in 2018, testing the waters in Baltimore, with Nachshon’s own parents as the first sudsters. They soon realized they had an idea with huge potential. A surprising number of people were willing to pay $1 per pound to put their dirty laundry outside their door and find it returned the next day, cleaned and folded. (There’s a $20 minimum per order.) Similarly, SudShare had no problem enticing plenty of people to do the pick-up, delivery and laundering on a tight schedule in return for $.75 per pound plus tips. (SudShare corporate keeps the other $.25 per pound and says the average sudster grosses approximately $15 to $20 per hour.) Sudsters use their own washer and dryer and are required to use certain detergents and follow customer instructions (such as air drying, using softener, or hanging rather than folding).
Big growth plans Today, five members of the Fertel family are employed by SudShare, along with more than a dozen other employees. Nachshon’s father, Mort, a graduate of Wharton Business School and serial entrepreneur, is CEO of the company. In just a few years, with the help of some angel investors and venture capitalists, the business has spread to 400 cities across the U.S. According to Mort Fertel, they set records each month with both new customers (6,400 last month) and sudsters (more than 13,000 signed up last month) nationwide. In part that’s due to the multiplier effect of social media. The most bubbly of sudsters post videos on Facebook and Instagram, some of which have gone viral. At the same time, new customers who are overjoyed by the service provide similar free publicity with their videos and posts. The system is COVID-friendly, since customers and sudsters never have to come face-to-face. And part of its appeal has been that front-line workers, many of
Ari Fertel, left, raised her children in Baltimore, where her son Nachshon, center, launched a concierge laundry business that has grown nationwide. Through a smartphone app called SudShare, people can hire others to pickup, wash and return their clothes. Anyone with a washer and dryer at home can also become a "Sudster" who gets paid to do others' laundry.
whom would prefer a job where they can work “remotely,” can do so by becoming full- or part-time sudsters and earn a similar living. Fertel proudly said he believes “SudShare offers the first manual labor work-from-home gig in the world.” Plans are afoot to take the company public, as well as to offer the service internationally, spreading to all “first-world countries” starting in 2023, Fertel said.
How to get on the bandwagon Fertel said about one-third of customers today are over the age of 50, as are about 15% of sudsters (most of them in their 50s). While their “average top sudster” grosses $2,000 to $3,000 a month, most of them are part-timers just trying to earn a few hundred dollars a month to help pay the bills, Fertel said. When asked how sudsters might fare after deducting wear and tear on a washer and dryer meant for home rather than commercial use, he said some part-timers probably have an “underutilized” washer/dryer, while those using theirs heavily make
enough money to replace them every year, if need be. It’s easy to get started as a customer. Visit SudShare.com to sign up, or call their “senior hotline” at 1-833-783-7427. Interested in becoming a sudster? Go to the website and click “join the team.” Once you register, take a 10-minute orientation and “in-app training,” and you’re in the system. You can accept or reject jobs offered to you, but bear in mind that your first job will be heavily scrutinized. (Customers are asked to rate sudsters on numerous aspects of the job, and the app incorporates ratings into its algorithm.) Once you’ve proven yourself, and if you consistently get good customer ratings, you’ll be offered more jobs. You also get to rate your customers and select the ones you want to serve. By the same token, customers can request their favorite sudsters. A person could develop quite a close relationship with someone who takes “the most hated chore” off their hands.
SEE SPECIAL INSERT Housing & Homecare Options following page 8
Shelly McLaughlin, program director for the Baltimore nonprofit Pathfinders for Autism, has a close relationship with her son Hunter, who lives with autism spectrum disorder. Local organizations like Pathfinders can help parents of adults with autism.
land School of Medicine’s Department of Neurology. Crino directs the University of Maryland Center for Adults with Neurodevelopmental Disabilities and the Tuberous
Sclerosis Complex Center of Maryland — the only regional centers in Maryland to focus specifically on adults with autism. See AUTISM, page 6
ARTS & STYLE
Baltimore artist Ernest Shaw Jr.’s solo show runs through April 17 at the Inner Harbor’s Top of the World gallery page 12 FITNESS & HEALTH k A true cure for some cancers k Exercises for a stronger core
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LEISURE & TRAVEL k Beyond Aruba’s beaches
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Community for Life
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