Written by Daniel Frederick, a Coffee Oasis staff member

Just last Sunday a young man asked me to drive him home after church. The church meets at our café in downtown Bremerton, which throughout the week is also home to our drop-in youth programs for homeless and at-risk youth, like this young man.

To be honest, the ride wasn’t convenient. I had 3 other engagements filling the remainder of the day, but since his stop was on my way, I made space in my car.

Well, what would you do if you had someone in your car and a thousand other things on your mind? Me too. I made small talk.

“What are your holiday plans,” I asked.

20 minutes later we were still together. My full attention held by Jacob*, whose whole body was heaving up and down trying to hold back the tears that had already found a place to leak out. He told me that he wasn’t going to visit his family any more. You see, Jacob has Asperger’s syndrome. When he was younger it would take over his emotions and make him raging mad. That was the Jacob we met 5-years-ago when he first walked through our doors. His family couldn’t manage his behavior and so he moved across the water and lived as a ward of the state.

Now—5 years later—they hadn’t come to know the new Jacob, a boy growing into a man without a family.

“Why is it that everyone at The Coffee Oasis has been more of a family to me than my own family?” Jacob asked me.

I can’t answer for his family, but I can answer for us.

This is what community means to us.

And think, this is what YOU help build with every cup of coffee drank and every pound of coffee bought. Buy coffee, build community. This is your place, too.

 

*Name changed to respect youth’s identity