{"id":329433,"date":"2025-04-13T15:40:10","date_gmt":"2025-04-13T20:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=329433"},"modified":"2025-04-10T20:45:36","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T01:45:36","slug":"coffee-shop-down-syndrome-employs-special-needs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/coffee-shop-down-syndrome-employs-special-needs\/","title":{"rendered":"Coffee shop owner with Down syndrome employs others with special needs"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>Nektario Tsinonis hasn&#8217;t let Down syndrome stop him from accomplishing his dreams. The Maryland native is now CEO of his very own coffee shop, and he&#8217;s building his business by employing others with special needs.<\/p>\n<p>With the help and support of his family, Nektario runs Beans &amp; Dreams &#8211; Nektario\u2019s Place, a coffee shop in Middletown, Maryland. Nektario learned the business working in his family&#8217;s Greek restaurant, but as his mother Joana explained, he always expressed a desire to create a coffee shop of his own.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He always said he wanted something with his name on it,&#8221; Joana said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/D0eapxESdSs?si=50UXFR5Nla2aBHFu\" width=\"640\" height=\"355\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The shop&#8217;s slogan, &#8220;A caf\u00e9 and coffee shop dedicated to attaining life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for young adults with disabilities,&#8221; is fitting, given the shop aims to primarily employ people with special needs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone has a place here, or at least we hope so,\u201d Joana told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wusa9.com\/article\/life\/people\/the-heart-of-it\/heart-of-it-beans-and-dreams-coffee-maryland\/65-582476b7-a890-42b4-b1dc-61c0ecd4f48b\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WUSA<\/a>. Elaborating to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.frederickmagazine.com\/articles\/community-cafe?fbclid=IwY2xjawJj2hNleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHsaPb-Xr8WQllp1DC4TNNy23rWmWTUSJYaPRXoyaMR5awF01uBGUxghk3asa_aem_ebQubUZaIid-11MZ2sBrNQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Frederick Magazine<\/a>, she said the employees aren&#8217;t merely there to work, but to learn life skills that help them feel like they are part of the local community.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What we do is teach them to be part of society, and to be appropriate, learn how to ask questions, and engage people,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Helping those with special needs is just part of the goal, as the family also recognizes the need to provide quality service. In addition to specialty coffee, the shop <a href=\"https:\/\/www.beansanddreamscafe.com\/menu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">also serves<\/a> baked goods and savory items.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking about Nektario&#8217;s early life, Joana explained that she was fearful when she learned her son had Down syndrome, but those fears were unfounded. \u201cI thought my world would be very different in a bad way,\u201d she said. \u201cBut it was very different in the best of ways.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I regret feeling that way every day for the past 25 years. He&#8217;s been a blessing,&#8221; she added.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/actnow.io\/G3Bhv6M\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-325597\" src=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02-1-700x251.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"251\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02-1-700x251.png 700w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02-1-300x107.png 300w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02-1-768x275.png 768w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02-1-500x179.png 500w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02-1.png 1167w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nektario Tsinonis hasn&#8217;t let Down syndrome stop him from accomplishing his dreams. The Maryland native is now CEO of his very own coffee shop, and he&#8217;s building his business by employing others with special needs. With the help and support of his family, Nektario runs Beans &amp; Dreams &#8211; Nektario\u2019s Place, a coffee shop in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":329548,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[9455,3473],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Coffee shop owner with Down syndrome employs others with special needs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With the help and support of his family, he runs Beans &amp; Dreams - Nektario\u2019s Place, a coffee shop in Middletown, Maryland.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/coffee-shop-down-syndrome-employs-special-needs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Coffee shop owner with Down syndrome employs others with special needs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With the help and support of his family, he runs Beans &amp; Dreams - Nektario\u2019s Place, a coffee shop in Middletown, Maryland.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/coffee-shop-down-syndrome-employs-special-needs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-13T20:40:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-11T01:45:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/nektarios-place-coffee-shop-WUSA9.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Bridget Sielicki\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Bridget Sielicki\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/coffee-shop-down-syndrome-employs-special-needs\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/coffee-shop-down-syndrome-employs-special-needs\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Bridget Sielicki\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/354818e37fca891455094342cfaacf2f\"},\"headline\":\"Coffee shop owner with Down syndrome employs others with special needs\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-13T20:40:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-11T01:45:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/coffee-shop-down-syndrome-employs-special-needs\/\"},\"wordCount\":318,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Human Interest\",\"Newsbreak\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/coffee-shop-down-syndrome-employs-special-needs\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/coffee-shop-down-syndrome-employs-special-needs\/\",\"name\":\"Coffee shop owner with Down syndrome employs others with special needs\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-13T20:40:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-11T01:45:36+00:00\",\"description\":\"With the help and support of his family, he runs Beans & Dreams - 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