For Matthew Bedran and Ashley, Studs N Suds began as a family-owned pressure washing company, but the vision stretched beyond clean driveways and patios. It was about building something sturdy enough to support a family, and meaningful enough to create opportunity for others.
“Pressure washing was never the limit of what we envisioned for ourselves or our family,” Matthew said. “The business is important to us. The mission behind it is what makes it personal.”
That mission grew from their life at home. Matthew and Ashley are raising a blended family of four boys, including Ashley’s son, Tristen, who is 17. Tristen is Level 2 autistic and has developmental and cognitive delays, but to his family, those words tell only part of his story.
“He is one of the kindest, sweetest, funniest and hardest-working kids we know,” Matthew said. “He wants to contribute. He wants to work. He wants to serve his country. He wants to have a purpose.”
Since he was eight years old, Tristen has dreamed of serving in the military. As he moved closer to adulthood, his family was being asked to think realistically about his future support needs. Matthew said hearing that they should begin exploring adult residential or halfway-home-type programs was difficult, especially while watching Tristen continue to imagine a future of service and independence.
“We don’t want someone else deciding what Tristen is capable of before he ever gets the chance to find out for himself,” he said.
Employment became another painful piece of the puzzle. Tristen applied to one of the few companies the family knew openly hired people with disabilities, but never received a response. That experience left Matthew and Ashley asking a question: What happens to young adults like Tristen after high school, when they want to work, contribute and earn independence but cannot find an open door?
For Matthew, that question changed the way he looked at Studs N Suds. Instead of asking what kind of job someone with a disability could do, he began asking what someone might accomplish with “the right opportunity, training, structure and support.”
“We don’t want to create jobs out of pity,” he said. “We want to create real jobs for people who have something to contribute.”
That distinction is at the heart of the company’s long-term vision. Matthew knows autism is a spectrum and that each person’s strengths, challenges and support needs are different. The goal is not to force everyone into the same role, but to build opportunities around individuals.
“The pressure washing is the business,” he said. “The opportunity is the mission.”
If Tristen wants to be part of Studs N Suds someday, there will be a place for him. But the hope is that he, like all four boys, has choices.
“Success is about creating choices,” Matthew said. “If Studs N Suds becomes a large, successful company, we will be proud of that. But if it also becomes a company where a parent of an autistic young adult can say, ‘My child might have a place here,’ that means something different to us.”
In this season, Matthew said the family is thankful for their customers, their boys and the uncertainty of what comes next.
“Tristen’s story isn’t finished,” he said. “Our boys’ stories aren’t finished. And neither is the story of Studs N Suds.”
“We don’t want to create jobs out of pity. We want to create real jobs for people who have something to contribute.” Matthew Bedran