A Sunshine Coast café owner is “paying it forward” and putting some sparkle into the lives of those who can least afford Christmas cheer this festive season.
Grahame Stanley, who has operated Crumbz café on the ground floor of Caloundra’s Centrepoint Apartments for the past 15 years, has been through the ups and downs of running a business in these COVID-crazy times and his own health problems in recent years.
But he knows many people are doing it even tougher.
The New Zealand-born businessman, who admits he’s by no means “a wealthy restaurateur”, made this announcement in a Crumbz cafe Facebook post on December 19: “I’d like to offer to those of my customers who are spending the days alone or without funds a wee bit of something. For the first 20 customers who come to Crumbz, who are spending Xmas alone or broke, I would like to give you $50 perhaps just to buy yourselves a chicken and some veg or whatever makes you feel a little part of Xmas. All you have to do is say the words: ‘One day I’ll pay it forward’. It’s not much but I hope it’s enough to put a smile on a few faces.”
“Paying it forward” is the thrill of doing something selfless for someone who does not expect this kind act. Then they, in turn, are asked to pay it forward to another person at some stage and so on.
The post has been receiving plenty of love, garnering 33 comments from customers and strangers, including this comment from Melissa Hadlow: “What an amazing gesture of kindness. We will be visiting Caloundra soon and we will make sure we pop in as much as we can. Merry Christmas.”
By late on December 22, the post had been shared 54 times, and had already helped seven people have a merrier Christmas.
Insisting “I’m not looking for notoriety”, the very private and softly spoken Grahame hopes his $1000 gesture may inspire others to help someone less fortunate and keep the random acts of kindness rolling on to those who need some yuletide TLC.
One follower, Trina Bradshaw, already has come to the party with an offer of 20, $20 vouchers to spread the joy even further to some of Crumbz’ elderly customers.
“I know that these other people are all badly off so I’d like to put a little bit of spark in someone’s life,” Grahame said.
“We’ve had seven (take up the offer) to date. We’ve got a few new homeless people that have moved into Caloundra so if I still have any left on Friday, I’ll give it to them in goods.
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“I don’t have any family in Australia, only my partner, and we usually have Christmas at home.
“I had a couple of people come in last week and ask: ‘What are you doing (for Christmas)?’. And I know that they are people who are basically on their own. I know two of them live in government housing and that’s kind of why I thought, ‘Well, what can I do?’.
“It makes me feel better about enjoying my quiet Christmas. I know there’s a lot of people who sit at home on their own and it’s quite sad.”
Grahame previously ran another business for 10 years in Caloundra and has become an intrinsic part of the community.
While he admits hospitality has had a steeper roller-coaster ride than many industries these past few years with COVID, Grahame is grateful that through running his café, he has staff and customers he now calls friends. He counts his lucky stars every day.
“I’m really lucky with, A. the people I work with, and B. the customers,” he said.
“Three of my staff have been with me the whole way and one of them was with me in the last business.
“Most of my customers – I’d say a good 20% – have probably been with me for the 15 years.
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“I think I’m the longest-term operator in hospitality in Caloundra and my customers are just awesome.
“They’ve got me through all this COVID stuff.
“I just think I owe something back. That little café gets me out of bed every morning.”
