Alva Community Coffee held at 818 Diner Friday
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January 22, 2023
Marione Martin
Joe Parsons (standing right) welcomes guests to the Alva Chamber Community Coffee at 818 Diner. He thanked the community for the support his family has received since they opened the diner three years ago.
Alva Chamber Executive Director Jodie Bradford-Stevison welcomed those attending the Community Coffee Jan. 20 at 818 Diner.
The Parsons family opened the 818 Diner about three years ago. Joe Parsons thanked the community for their support of the restaurant, but he spoke mostly about the Alva Change Makers and the fundraising dinners they began holding a little over a year ago. Held once a month on Tuesdays, the day the diner is closed, the dinners raise money by donation to give to a worthy cause.
"After last week's dinner for the campus cabinet, it's going to be a little over $10,000 we've been able to give away so far," Parsons said. "That's something we couldn't do without our community. We're averaging 150-200 people coming out for that."
He said the next dinner on Feb. 21 will be pancakes to raise money for the Alva Goldbug Education Foundation which provides college scholarships for Alva High School graduates and mini-grants for Alva teachers.
Parsons said the Change Makers placed a newspaper ad about their free Christmas dinner with a line saying donations could be mailed to 818 Diner. "Within a week, we had donations for the whole dinner," he said. They served close to 700 people with about 300 dining in, 300 doing takeout and another 100 delivered. Parsons said, "We couldn't do that without community support."
Terri Parsons, Joe's mother, said, "Thank you for all the support. We made it through Covid and we made it through some tough times, and the community has always been amazing."
Bradford-Stevison reminded everyone to submit their nominations for the ten categories of the Citizen's Choice Awards. The nominations are available online and the deadline is Feb. 9. The Gala will be held on March 23 with a Kentucky Derby theme. She said female committee members will be wearing their derby hats for the gala.
The next Community Coffee will feature legislators Rep. Carl Newton and Sen. Casey Murdock. It will be held at 8 a.m. on Feb. 17 at Windy Ford.
A video from the event may be viewed at http://www.AlvaReviewCourier.com.
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