A new Roanoke initiative, #roanokestrong, gives free coffee to essential workers and is looking to expand.
Crickett Powell
Travis Powell of Valley iPhone Repair.
Like so many local initiatives, #roanokestrong began with the powerful desire to help in any way possible. Travis Powell, part owner of Valley iPhone Repair in Roanoke, just wanted to help when he “quickly saw that businesses would be affected” dramatically by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Powell had spent a number of years as a chef and knows the restaurant business well enough to understand how hard the virus would impact employees. “I felt helpless,” he says. “We had an entire community that could be without jobs the next day.”
So, he sprang into action in a way he could. “We all want to do our part to support local businesses and restaurants ... they need us now more than ever.” Helping essential workers, though, got his immediate attention.
His idea: team with local coffee shop Sweet Donkey to purchase a group of $5, $10 and $15 gift cards from the shop and give them to front-line workers. Valley iPhone Repair bought $200 worth of the Sweet Donkey cards and asked that front-line workers stop by Sweet Donkey Saturday and Sunday, show their ID and get their coffee—on Valley iPhone Repair.
“We want to support health care workers, grocery and convenience store employees, delivery drivers, etc. They are literally putting their lives on the line to help us all.”
Powell says that since the initial idea began to spread “several businesses have jumped in” (including Scratch Biscuits and King Screen T-shirt print shop) and #roanokestrong has been formed. Its Facebook Page is “Roanoke Strong,” designed by his sister, Cricket Powell Maiden).
“This is the community helping the community." Powell says national and state measures to help “are important, but Roanokers tend to take care of ourselves. We can do it together and we always do.”
About the Writer:
Dan Smith is an award-winning Roanoke-based writer/author/photographer and a member of the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame (Class of 2010). His blog, fromtheeditr.com, is widely read and he has authored seven books, including the novel CLOG! He is founding editor of a Roanoke-based business magazine and a former Virginia Small Business Journalist of the Year (2005).