Our Cancer Journey & The Journey Café

Thank you for checking out our fundraiser.

The Short Story

Kimberly & I met in Vancouver on a beautiful summer day In August 1996. The short story is, we got married and started Good News Auto together. In 2016 Kimberly was diagnosed with terminal stage 4 cancer when breast cancer metastasized into her spine. She had emergency surgery on her spine (got stable) and has lived 2 years beyond her prognosis of a year maybe more. We had an amazing opportunity about a year ago to start planning Kimberly’s legacy. *What does it mean to leave a legacy? It means putting a stamp on the future and contributing to future generations.

The Legacy

We are building a Non-Profit café that bridges our mechanic shop and The Journey woman’s retreat. (www.journeyretreat.ca) In the last 7 years Good News Auto’s JumpStart Fund has assisted with vehicle repairs, rent, groceries and educated people through our Car Care education. Journey Café will be a place to continue connection started on the Journey weekends. The Journey Café will give us a venue to do even more as it is registered as a national (Canadian) Non-Profit. We want to expand the ways our JumpStart Fund can help and invite more people to be involved in our community.
 
The Ask

The project is ½ way done and is coming along great. We have a projected opening date of Mid-December. We have $70,000 saved up and are putting our house on the line for the remaining $30,000-$40,000 to finish the project. Would you consider a donation on our GoFundMe Page? Whether it’s a donation of $5 or $500 we would love to have you partner with us in this community café and help me help Kimberly leave her stamp in our city.

Budget Project budget approx. $100,000 Asking for help with. $30,000 Predicted monthly cost to run. $ 7,500 - Good News Auto Sponsored Volunteers

Amount of volunteers needed. 15
Amount of volunteers we have. 5

How Can You Help?
$5-$19 Donation - A virtual high five or hug. You choose!
$20 – $99.00 Donation - A free cup of coffee once we open and mention on our website.
$100 - $1000 Donation - A free cup of coffee, mention on our website, $10 in Good News Auto Bucks, an invite to our grand opening and a personalized coffee mug.
Link to Our Coffee Shop 

We will put your donation towards the following:
- training volunteers
- helping to pay for equipment (espresso machines, drip coffee machines, oven, refrigeration, contractors etc.) 
- help pay for a portion of the build

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There’s always more to the story.

We are all on a journey and we all have a story. The Journey Café story started when Chris and Kimberly Ferland met years ago. Chris was in active addiction on the streets of Vancouver, Kimberly was leaving an abusive marriage when their paths crossed and their journey began.

One of the first things we learned as we travelled together is the importance of community. We both got involved in 12 step groups and there we learned the power of community and learning from each other. Everyone has something to teach and everyone has something to learn.

Along our journey we got involved in The Journey.(www.journeyretreat.ca) The Journey is a weekend retreat designed to show women in vulnerable places they are valued and loved. Dozens of volunteers work together to provide spa day, creativity, good food and care for our guests.

We continued to lean heavily on our community as we started Good News Auto. We believed if we offered our community the opportunity to care for each other people would seize the opportunity and we were right. As we developed our JumpStart Fund and Car Care education courses our customers used our retail mechanic repair shop, donated to our JumpStart Fund and told their friends about our shop. The idea behind our JumpStart Fund is everyone needs a boost at some time in their journey.

In 2016 we had cause to call on our community again. Kimberly was diagnosed with terminal stage 4 cancer as her breast cancer metastasized into her spine. The fear and uncertainty of this time could easily have crushed a small business. Instead our team and customers continued to show up and Good News Auto continued on.

A serious diagnosis like this brings perspective and we began dreaming of doing more for our community. We grew up in the age of Neon Rider( this dates us, we know) and the idea of creating a place of belonging and connection has always appealed to Chris and I.

The Journey Café will bridge the work already started through Good News Auto’s JumpStart Fund and the connections started on Journey weekends. Our community Non-Profit café will offer several different ways to be involved and give people a JumpStart:

Our JumpStart Fund will be expanded beyond vehicle repairs to help with education, starting businesses and even towards living expenses;

We are looking for volunteers to help with the day to day operations of our coffee shop;

We are offering people with barriers to employment an opportunity to learn and grow their resume and references through volunteering;

We want to provide opportunities for people to share their stories, creativity and skills. This may be a paint night, music or show casing a business idea. We are creating a space for people to share and grow their talents and things they love to do.

We are open to ideas. Journey Café is a place where everyone can learn and teach or share something of themselves. We are inviting you to be part of building a community you want to be part of.

Pictures From The Journey Retreat


The café will offer a number of opportunities for people to learn, teach and share their stories:

- Volunteer for JumpStart Fund credits  to remove financial road blocks

- Volunteer opportunities for people who have road blocks to employment

- Volunteer opportunities for people who want to give back

- Incubate small business ideas to provide tools for people’s journey

- Opportunities for people to share and explore their creative talents

Our community and customers’ generosity and support is what has made Good News Auto a success. Now we are inviting you to help us build the Journey Café. We are building the community we want to belong to. We invite you to join us by sharing financial resources, spreading the word about our café and stopping by to share a cup of coffee when we are open. We look forward to seeing you on the road and wish you well, wherever your travels may take you.