Hemant Appreciation/ Vacation Fund

If you work at 100 North Tampa St, you know who Hemant Patel is.   You may not even know his name, but I can assure you he knows yours.  Hemant works at the Gateway Newsstand on the ground floor right next to the parking garage elevators.  He makes your coffee fresh every morning, orders your lunch from various local vendors, supplies your afternoon sugar rush, and even brings you fortune by printing out winning lottery tickets.  However, those things are trivial in comparison to what Hemant really does every day – He makes you smile.  In fact, the four years I’ve known Hemant, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him not smile.  It’s truly what he does best.  As we all work tirelessly away at our desks, you can guarantee taking a break and going down to the first floor to stop and talk to Hemant will brighten your day.  

Hemant is a reminder to all of us that there is good in this world.  His positive attitude and outgoing personality are the main reason you keep coming back to his store.  Okay, okay, not the main reason, the Cuban coffee is pretty amazing.  Outside of work, Hemant is a loving husband and amazing father to two wonderful daughters.  The oldest, a freshman at UCF in Orlando, and the youngest is graduating from high school on Friday, May 29th.  It’s apparent when meeting his children that his hard work and dedication carries through to another generation.

Which brings me to why I started this GoFundMe Page.  Hemant has arguably worked harder than anyone you’ve ever met.  Rarely has there been a day where you did not see him running the store, and as a result, his last real vacation was 5 years ago during a Thanksgiving break where he took one day off.  One.  Day.  Off.    Before that, you couldn’t count on one hand how many days he has taken off to enjoy some relaxing, peaceful time away from work.  I started this page to collect donations in appreciation of all the smiles, great customer service, and favors Hemant has done for you over the years.  This isn’t for charity.  It’s a thank you to a great person in our community. 

I volunteered to take a day off of work to run his store while he attends his daughter's graduation.  He doesn’t know I’m doing this GoFundMe Page, and when he returns on Monday, it would be pretty cool to have enough to fund a vacation him and his wife can take now that they’ll be embarking on an empty nest. 

Thank you!