The power of independence

Challenge Enterprises CEO talks to Clay County business group

At the October 6 meeting of the Keystone-Lake Region Business Association, the chief executive officer of Challenge Enterprises highlighted the nonprofit’s 50-year track record of helping people with different abilities achieve independence.

Nancy Keating told the business group that her organization started in October 1972, when the charter members who formed what would become Challenge Enterprises established a nonprofit agency to serve adults with various abilities.

One of the 33 founding members, a public school system assistant superintendent, applied for a grant that enabled the organization to hire its first staff member.

“With that grant money in 1973,” Keating said— “they received it in July— and then in September of 1973, they hired a coordinator.”

The coordinator’s job was to educate the public about people with different abilities, identify the needs of the individuals living in Clay County and raise funds to provide the programs and services.

“The person they hired was me,” Keating recalled. “I jumped at the opportunity.”

J.C. Penney catalogs to government contracts

Keating said the group started with ceramics classes and trips to the Naval Air Station- Jacksonville bowling alley.  

She added that the group loved bowling at the base, which continued until 1989,

However, Keating sensed that her clients craved independence, and the key to autonomy was earning a paycheck.

A turning point in the organization came when it secured a contract to distribute J.C. Penny catalogs throughout the area.

“Our Challenge Enterprise folks loaded up the catalogs in our personal trucks, personal vans,” Keating recalled. “We would put each catalog in a plastic bag, put the label card in it, and hang them on a door or put them next to a mailbox…and we got chased by every dog in town.”

Keating said that at the end of two weeks, members of her group earned a paycheck of $100.

One recipient, Bob Rawling, said he planned on using the money to buy a trailer for his bicycle.

Rawling, known as Bicycle Bob at the Navy base, eventually landed a job as a janitor at the facility, and today is a homeowner.

His story has become an example of the success and independence Challenge Enterprises seeks to help others achieve.

Keating said the organization’s success at delivering the catalogs soon led to other opportunities.

“We started receiving phone calls from federal government agencies, state government agencies and local businesses asking us to do work for them,” Keating said.  

She added that today, Challenge Enterprises has businesses in grounds maintenance, packaging, fulfillment, tree farming, janitorial services, warehousing, mail room operations, sewing, manufacturing, secure document destruction, administrative services, contract auditing and food distribution.

Learning a skill, getting a job

Career training and job creation are only one part of the group’s mission. Challenge Enterprises also owns group homes for people with different abilities and provides residential services for clients who live on their own properties, like cooking, housekeeping and medical administration.

“We also do pre-vocational training for people who are not in school,” Keating said. “We have a program called Club Challenge where we bring them in and teach them the expectations of being an adult: becoming independent, learning a skill and getting a job. And when they get that first job, it is amazing.”

The organization continues to provide recreational activities, continuing the tradition it started at the NAS bowling alley.

Challenge Enterprises also operates programs within Clay County Public Schools, including an internship program with Kindred Hospital in Green Cove Springs.

$40 million in wages

  Keating said another turning point in the organization’s history occurred when it took over grounds maintenance and janitorial services at the Navy base in 1988.

The work, covering 29 buildings and 75 acres, required two shifts of workers five days a week.  The contract doubled Challenge Enterprises’ revenues overnight.

Today the organization employs 308 people, 189 of whom have different abilities.

“We have 11 federal government contracts,” Keating said, “most are in Jacksonville; we have two in Gainesville.”

The nonprofit also has state contracts in the two cities and a food distribution contract with Clay County, bringing the nonprofit to Keystone Heights.

“We have six commercial contracts,” Keating added. “We have a shredding company called Shred for Good, which does secure document destruction.”

The CEO said that from 1988 through 2021, people with different abilities earned nearly $40 million through Challenge Enterprises.

She added that those earnings are circulated back into the local economy.

However, the real benefit of the money is that it gives Challenge Enterprises employees the power of independence.