Chase Shows Up for Everyone. That’s Just Who He Is.
Georgia Tech graduate. Alliance Theatre usher. Mentor. Wonder Maker. Chase has never needed anyone to tell him he has something to offer.
There’s a moment that happens sometimes in the Wonderfully Made space — a quiet Tuesday morning, cookies in the oven, the smell of brown butter moving through the room — when you look around and realize that everyone in the building is contributing something. Nobody is here just to receive. Everyone is bringing what they have.
Chase brings a lot.
He graduated from the Georgia Tech Excel Program. He works as an usher at both the Alliance Theatre and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra — which means he has shown more people to their seats, with more grace and patience, than almost anyone in this story. He is also a mentor at the Arthur M. Blank Center for Stuttering Education, where he uses his own experience to walk alongside others navigating theirs.
Read that again slowly. He is a mentor. He is the one doing the giving.
This matters because the narrative we have inherited about adults with intellectual disabilities tends to run in one direction: need, gap, service, support. What that narrative consistently misses is the reverse current — the ways these men and women pour back into the communities around them. Chase doesn’t just receive community at Wonderfully Made. He creates it. His favorite part of the program isn’t any specific activity. It’s the people. The community itself.
“There are adults with intellectual disabilities who have beautiful gifts and talents to share.”
That’s a conviction that lives at the center of Wonderfully Made. Chase is one of its clearest proofs.
His favorite cookie is the pumpkin snickerdoodle — a seasonal test flavor that has developed a devoted following, likely because Chase championed it from the start. If you’ve had a pumpkin snickerdoodle, you understand why.
When people ask what Wonderfully Made is trying to build, the temptation is to give the elevator pitch — the numbers, the model, the vision. But honestly, the better answer is to say: come meet Chase. Watch how he moves through a room. Ask him about the Atlanta Symphony. Ask him about the people he mentors.
He will tell you everything. Because that is just who he is.
Bring Wonderfully Made to your church or community
We are actively seeking churches and community organizations ready to launch their own Wonderfully Made chapter. Wonder Makers like Chase are waiting. Visit wonderfullymadecommunity.org/get-involved/chapters to start the conversation.