上咖啡和希望

避难所的咖啡, 用同样的心和希望建造, is the fruition of the vision of founder 和 CEO Kathryn “Kitti” Smith Murray ’78. 她和她的丈夫, 比尔, 几年前搬到克拉克斯顿, 和 Murray found herself lamenting the fact that the city did not have a place to sit 和 drink coffee.“克拉克斯顿需要一家咖啡店，”默里说. 这个想法就是这样形成的. But it has turned into something much more than we ever imagined.”

Clarkston may have lacked a place to linger over lattes, but it had no shortage of refugees. In fact, a CNN report called it “the most diverse city in America.” That’s because thous和s from Africa 和 the Middle East have relocated to Clarkston since 2000 as part of a federal government resettlement program. An estimated 55 languages are spoken in this city with a population of about 12,000. 看到需求, part of Murray’s idea was to provide job training to refugees so they could earn a livable wage. “They 工作 with us for one year 和 then move on to their next steps, 不管是什么,默里说. “We 工作 to fashion mentorship 和 next-step opportunities around their future dream."

The story of how the startup nonprofit came to be could be described as a true grass-roots effort. The Murrays hosted block parties to meet their neighbors 和 gauge interest in the idea. 她向她认识的每个人吹嘘这件事. And she 工作ed to learn the basics of launching a nonprofit.“It was a lot of hard 工作 和 long hours,” she admits. “Our director of operations 和 I both had eye  twitches for six months.”

In May 2015, 避难所的咖啡 opened in Clarkston, serving coffee from the truck two days a week. 剩下的时间, 这辆卡车被派去做餐饮工作, 尤其是在《正规博彩十大网站排名》的片场, 吸血鬼日记, 《正规博彩十大网站排名》和其他电影和电视节目. Catering, Murray says, was the only way the enterprise would 工作 在财务上.

“Catering was part of the equation from the beginning,” she says. “所以我们接受了职业培训, a coffee shop 和 a catering business all rolled into a nonprofit that wanted to build community in the process. It was daunting, 和 I still don’t know how we did it!”

最终, the owner of the gas station rented them the inside of the building, which Murray knew would make an ideal gathering space.They cleaned the place out, painted walls, ripped up carpet 和 installed comfortable seating. 生意继续兴旺. Last year, 避难所的咖啡 added a second truck, allowing the shop to be open six days a week. In October 2017, the nonprofit bought the building.

来自纳什维尔, 田纳西州, Murray now lives just a few miles down the road from where she went to college. She arrived at 正规博彩十大网站排名学院 in 1974 with dreams of becoming a writer. When she visited the Agnes Scott campus, she says, she immediately felt at home. She double-majored in English 和 creative writing 和 German.

She met her husb和, 比尔, then a student at Mercer University, while still at Agnes Scott. They married 和 moved to Texas, where he attended seminary. Murray 工作ed as a receptionist at a law firm 和 then as a manager for an apartment complex. They eventually returned to Atlanta 和 raised four sons. 当她最小的孩子上小学的时候, 她回去当了作家, 她自己或与人合著了几本书.

The gr和mother of eight calls herself a “hyper welcomer” 和 “someone who loves to talk.” These skills have been useful in making 避难所的咖啡 the success it is today 和 are apparent in how she greets by name everyone who comes in. She credits her Agnes Scott education for honing her communication skills.

“Being able to communicate 和 distill language to tell our story is so important,默里说. “I learned that at Agnes Scott; the school was where I was meant to be. I wanted to make a difference in the world, to impact people 和 glorify God.”

而这正是她所做的.

图片来源:Tom Meyer