As Rainbow Omega draws near to its 15th anniversary, the company continues to defy expectations and grow, even in the economic depths of a recession.

The hard work and vision of founder and CEO Stentson Carpenter and his talented staff has ensured the company’s viability over those years and keeps the company’s future looking bright.

Part of those big plans includes a vocational/work center that is in the works. Rainbow Omega has secured $2 million for the project which is expected to cost approximately $2.5 million. Carpenter believes the rest will be coming in soon.

“What it will mean to Rainbow Omega is more jobs for residents. To the local economy, it will mean more people hired from the community to work here,” Carpenter said. “Also, it will help secure the jobs of the people who are already here. We are working on some other businesses, and right now we’re talking with some folks who may give us business.”

Carpenter said looking for new business connections without a new work center would be pointless because the current one is filled to capacity. He cannot add any more employees because there is no more space.

“When we get in that building, it’s going to have a large work area. We’ll have a large cafeteria where we’ll serve lunches Monday through Friday. We’ll have an exercise-slash-gym area for our residents, and it will include some training rooms for staff and residents.”

It should also include some much-needed office space for administrative staff and a medical department for the company’s nursing staff.

For those unfamiliar with Rainbow Omega, the vast majority of the company’s 85 employees are intellectually disabled. Currently, those employees perform labor doing jobs such as assembling the owner’s manual packet for vehicles produced at Honda Manufacturing of Alabama and assembling mail outs for Talladega Superspeedway and other work.

Most employees are residents who live in housing on the Rainbow Omega campus, though a few commute to work. Many residents are local, coming from Talladega, St. Clair and Calhoun counties, though there are residents from throughout the state and a few out-of-state residents.

“Having a job and earning a paycheck is a big deal for anybody, but especially these people,” Carpenter said. “They go to the bank and cash their check. Then they go shopping. Those are all really wonderful things they get to do.”

One of Carpenter’s sons is intellectually disabled which led him to start Rainbow Omega in order to improve his quality of life and the lives of others like him by offering them quality health care, a steady work week and a social life with their peers.

Rainbow Omega benefits from some grants and government assistance, but also gets a bunch of help from private fundraising.

Carpenter said the fundraising dinners in cities such as Birmingham, Atlanta and Huntsville as well as an annual golf tournament put on with former Alabama football coach Gene Stallings can raise upwards of $450,000 for the company.

Locally, Rainbow Omega’s next fundraiser will be at the Anniston Meeting Center on Oct. 27, with special guest speaker Mike Gottfried. Gottfried is a former college football coach who currently serves as a color commentator on college football games for ESPN.

Rainbow Omega also benefits from the help of hundreds of volunteers who put in time over the year.

These funding sources have helped Rainbow Omega build its Intermediate Care Facility for the Mentally Facility in recent years as well as helping it buy 155 acres of adjoining property in the last year, so it can expand. Rainbow Omega now has 231 acres of property.

At the rate it is growing now, it may need all that land and more.