Starbucks Coworkers Raise Money To Help Fellow Barista Buy a New Car
"I am so lucky everyday."
A long time Starbucks employee on a college campus in West Virginia is riding around in a new car thanks to an outpouring of love - and money - from her fellow employees and customers who she calls her “kids.”
Karen Collinsworth has worked at Starbucks near the Marshall University campus in Huntington for 13 years - the job is her latest in a 43-year career in the service industry.
“I just love people,” Collinsworth told Southern Living about why she loves her work.
Collinsworth is a supervisor, so she manages her team of baristas. But she said she also acts in a parental role to her employees as well as the students she serves on campus who are away from home for the first time.
“I’m their Starbucks mom,” she said.
Collinsworth had shared with her teammates problems she’d been having with her car. Though she doesn’t do a lot of driving, she had to run the car for a certain number of hours a day just to get it to function.
“I wasn’t complaining,” Collinsworth said, but “I knew I'd have to get a new car eventually.”
Collinsworth’s fellow baristas - her “kids” - wanted to help so together they created a GoFundMe page called “We love you Karen” and asked for donations for Collinsworth to purchase a new vehicle.
Karen “deserves all the love and happiness in the world!” the page said. Donations for a new car would help her “continue doing what she loves without worrying about monthly expenses.”
The initial goal was to raise $10,000 but once Collinsworth’s team shared the page on their social media accounts, the donations started pouring in.
In a month, they had raised more than $40,000.
Collinsworth told Today.com she was “taken aback” when she found out about the fundraiser.
“It was overwhelming,” she said.
She recently used the funds to purchase a Kia Sportage, and she said she “absolutely loves it.”
The car, she said, is just a small token of the joy she feels in her life.
“I’m so lucky everyday.”
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