An Oregon Coffee Shop Temporarily Closed So the Owner Could Work for a Terminally Ill Competitor

Jelisa Castrodale

Last Wednesday, the Moonlight Coffeehouse in Oak Grove, Oregon, announced that it would be closed for the day. Instead of making cappuccinos and serving lattes at her own place, Moonlight's owner Pixie Adams announced that she'd be spending the day behind the counter at a different coffee shop a mile away.

In what might be the sweetest story of the entire year, when Adams learned that the owner of The Local Coffee Company had gone into hospice care, she decided to do what she could to help. She reached out to Dave McAdams and his family to ask if she could host a fundraiser to support his year-old coffee shop. When they gave her the go-ahead, she locked Moonlight's doors and encouraged her own customers to visit The Local Coffee Company for their caffeine fix instead.

"If you don't know, Dave McAdams has spent years working to support the local Oak Grove and Milwaukie communities through volunteer work, non-profit work, sports coaching and sadly, is now in hospice care as he bravely faces a terminal cancer diagnosis," Moonlight Coffeehouse wrote on Instagram. "And that means their family needs OUR help!"

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This Wednesday, December 11th from 9am-2pm, your help is needed! ... ... ... Moonlight Coffeehouse is renown for its passion for community, especially our Oak Grove community! Heck, we've won awards for our community love! Now sometimes, being a community leader means stepping up to show love and support for one of our own - even another local coffee place! ... And that’s exactly what we are doing for the people couple that recently became the new owners of The Local Coffee Company! ... If you don’t know, Dave McAdams has spent years working to support the local Oak Grove and Milwaukie communities through volunteer work, non-profit work, sports coaching and sadly, is now in hospice care as he bravely faces a terminal cancer diagnosis. ... And that means their family needs OUR help! ... So our owner, Pixie Adams (who opened Moonlight at the end of HER breast cancer battle) is going to spend the WHOLE day working for them (FOR FREE), making you drinks, creating social media attention for them and raising money! ... EVERY SINGLE DOLLAR you spend will go directly to Dave and Tina. Tips. Purchases. Donations. ALL OF IT! ... Because that's what community is about! ... So come buy a drink. Share the event. Donate. And show Dave and Tina what community love is all about. <3 <3 <3 ... The Local is a drive thru coffee shop in the parking lot of The Bomber Restaurant & Catering on McLoughlin Blvd. Its easy and quick to get to!

A post shared by Moonlight Coffeehouse (@moonlightcoffeehouse) on Dec 8, 2019 at 2:17pm PST

Adams pledged to work at The Local Coffee Company all day on Wednesday, and told her regulars that "every single dollar" that they spent that day would go directly to the McAdams family. "So come buy a drink. Share the event. Donate. And show Dave and Tina what community love is all about," Moonlight wrote.

According to Yahoo Lifestyle, the response to the Moonlight Takeover Fundraiser was "absolutely incredible," and it raised almost $4,000 for McAdams. In addition to that, a GoFundMe that was created for the family has exceeded its $15,000 fundraising goal. (And the comments that donors have left on the site show how loved McAdams is—and how much he has given to the community. "Dave is a role model for humanity," one person wrote. "May you be filled with the same love that you share with others," another added.)

Adams told the site that her own battle with breast cancer inspired her to step up to help McAdams. "I thought about what my cancer journey had been like, how hard it was to juggle and balance treatment and time with family and business," she said. "I told Tina, 'I want to do this for you so you can spend whatever time Dave has left, at home with him.'"

Another Portland coffee company, Mudd Works Roastery, donated and roasted 100 pounds of coffee beans, which are being sold as Dave's LovedDeeply Brew. The proceeds from each bag will also be donated to the McAdams family.

On Tuesday, The Local Coffee Company posted a picture on Facebook that said "Wake up. Kick a**. Be kind. Repeat." The greater Portland community has banded together to check all four of those things off of its collective to-do list—and it sounds like Dave McAdams has spent his life doing the same.