HISTORIC GROUNDS blog

I wanted to start with the unbelievable commitment from our customers at Historic Grounds. I recently applied to have an opportunity to obtain a grant from Chase Bank in the amount of $100,000. In order to be eligible for this grant, I had to obtain 250 votes through Facebook. I had just found out about this grant on Facebook one day as I was browsing through some posts, so by chance, I saw it and decided to apply. Historic Grounds was established in 2013 and at the time, it was best to purchase used equipment to get it started. Needless to say, we spent a lot of money on repairs to get the used equipment up and running. First of all, the refrigerator, it was going along just fine and boom, compressor went out, with that we lost a lot of food. More money out the window. However, it should be good for awhile (maybe 10 years), but its really the wrong design and takes up a lot more space than if we had a stand up refrigerator. We could also have a new convection oven on a stand (or a double oven) that we could use to keep up with demand. With $100,000 of grant money that doesn't need to be repaid, we could certainly redesign our kitchen and coffee shop with the best equipment and the desired design for our space.

So, about my customers. They have all come together about a year and a half ago when we decided that we needed a wheelchair ramp for our aging community to be able to come visit. Many of the residents at Snyder Village Retirement Community remember our building as ISCH's Corner. The original building housed a grocery store and a dry goods store for many years. So, it brings back a lot of memories to many of the towns population. We started a funding campaign locally with a jar for loose change, a sweatshirt campaign using Custom Ink and Boosters.com and just in talking with our customers, we were able to raise $3300+ from November thru March. At that time, we used the high school woodworking class to build the ramp to specs. First time I was appreciative for our awesome customers!

Then there was this voting campaign to obtain 250 votes for me to be eligible for the grant. Although it started a little slow, once people started talking about it and sharing with their friends, we hit the mark of 250 votes a week before the deadline. Everyone was excited about helping us reach that goal too. Again.. our customers are # 1. I hope some day they know how much I appreciate them. I try to give back to my community as much as possible with gift cards for special drawings, and by donating shirts or coffee and sometimes a gift card for their charity. But when it comes to Facebook and my "friends" they are second to none.