Six coffee shops in two days sounds like caffeine overload, but at least being wide awake at 3 a.m. will support a good cause.
Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) for children is hosting their 5th annual coffee crawl fundraising and awareness event on February 28 to March 1. During the two days, a percentage of sales from participating coffee shops will be donated to CASA. The funds go towards training programs as well as other advocacy efforts.
“It costs a lot of money to be able to advocate for children within the welfare system of Macon County and DeWitt County. We have over 600 children in the system and currently only 69 volunteers,” Shyler Kraus, Marketing and Development Manager at CASA, said. “It helps us to be able to adequately advocate for the children within the system without having to depend so much on federal grants.”
The coffee crawl idea began in response to COVID-19. During the pandemic, the need for socialization was at an all time high and going out for a cup of coffee seemed like a luxury. The coffee crawl felt like a way to facilitate that interaction while also being a tool to raise funds for CASA. The event proved to be such a success that they made it annual.
“It serves CASA as a really incredible recruitment tool. We have our advocates that are stationed at every single coffee shop and they invite their friends to come and have a cup of coffee with them and hang out,” Kraus said. “Then that friend becomes an advocate and then the next year, they bring a friend and maybe that friend becomes an advocate.”
CASA’s coffee crawl serves as a unique fundraiser that not only supports their cause and informs the public about the organization, but it also unites local coffee shops in a way that is typically unseen. Businesses, usually in competition with each other, encourage their patrons to visit other locations. Some coffee shops, like TLC Coffee House, even offer special menu items specifically for the crawl.
“The biggest thing is seeing all these shops in the local area working together and doing this event together and supporting each other,” Chapman Schanefelt, co-owner of TLC Coffee House and fifth year participant, said.
The coffee shops use the crawl as a means to connect with the community in a fresh way as it draws a crowd outside of their regular customer base. During the coffee crawl, they get the chance to meet new people and introduce their offerings, potentially gaining future business.
“It’s really just about seeing a lot of new faces and hoping to grow our clientele, along with seeing all the people out and supporting Macon County CASA in the process,” Schanefelt said.
Dale McKinney, the owner of Rockwell Coffee Company, especially finds the event useful to showcase the first and only mobile walk-in coffee shop in the Midwest. His operations are based out of a trailer that actually allows customers to walk inside to order. This is Rockwell’s second year participating in the crawl.
“For us, the experience was great because we have our regular friends and customers that come, but with the coffee crawl, we saw so many people that we’d never seen before that had never heard of us, that had never seen our concept before,” McKinney said. “It was just a really good and fun way to meet coffee lovers from all over the area.”
CASA’s mission and commitment to advocacy is a subject near and dear to McKinney’s heart. He has a total of 17 children, 15 of which are adopted. In the past, he has been exposed to CASA and the resources they offer. McKinney decorates his mobile coffee shop so that even if a customer doesn’t know about CASA when they enter, they will by the time they leave.
“We love what they do and we love the people. Somehow they end up hiring the best people,” Mckinney said. “It’s a very good, not only a fundraiser for CASA, but it’s also good to get their mission and what they do out there because they do some really important stuff for our community.”
This year, 121 Coffee Run, Crazy Ladies Cafe, Decatur Coffee Connection, Rockwell Coffee Company, Downtown Cafe, and TLC Coffee House are the small businesses involved in the coffee crawl. The goal is to visit all of them during the designated time frame. Participants should pick up a punch card at the first location and have it punched at every other stop.
“Being able to have such a solid relationship with each and every single one of the coffee shops that participates is absolutely immeasurable to us as an organization, and particularly to me as a member of this community,” Kraus said. “It is really cool to be able to partner with local businesses and to see a mutually beneficial event take place.”
CASA is offering the opportunity for participants who make it to each location and have their card completely punched, to be entered to win a grand prize. In order to be submitted for the drawing, the punch card should be dropped in the CASA Coffee Can at the last stop.
“When it’s the community supporting us, we can turn right back around and support the community,” Kraus said.
For more information, visit maconcountycasa.org or follow them on Facebook. While it is a lot of caffeine, just remember, “brew” can do it for CASA.
