FIRE: Make the Break Room Cooler
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*Update: Anonymous donor will match $5000 as soon as we get $5000 in donations!
Hi, I'm Chris Schultz. On December 18th, 2017, a fire broke out in downtown Topeka that completely disrupted our lives, as we knew them, for both of our neighboring family owned restaurants. It also dislocated me from my home.
This is our story...
In 2002, armed only with a dream and a lot of supportive friends, I had a feeling that if we built it, they would come. Field of Greens was born. For those of you who are familiar with Topeka history, our historic downtown was not necessarily celebrated the way it should have always been.
Well, It's 2017 and we are still alive and kicking, because of our loyal customers who continue to believe in us....
But just because our story can be reduced to a positive feel good line from a popular movie doesn't mean that it was easy. Back then, and even still today, some people have no issue calling us fools for believing in our community... We might be fools, but it's certainly not for believing in and supporting the people who have supported us.
A lot of people have been asking me how we've been doing since the fire, so here's a quick update before we get to the exciting announcement.
If you went back 3 years and asked me if we would survive the construction in downtown without any parking, I would have confidently told you that most of our customers are loyal office workers in the adjoining buildings... since they wouldn't be getting 2 years off and they still had to eat, I was fairly confident that they would be there to help us through the storm... and they would have been... but while the streets were torn up, 2 of our neighboring office buildings were emptied for renovations... the department of agriculture was moved to Manhattan... this caused nearly a 50% reduction to our loyal customer base and eliminated much of the already limited parking on the side streets for building construction dumpsters and crews.
I thought that we were done for until an event across the street gave me tremendous hope... it was the groundbreaking for the Cyrus Hotel. This was the first of many game changing events the reassured me that our decision to open downtown in 2002 was indeed a step on the right side of history...
And then there was the fire... on one of the coldest nights of the year, a person of unfortunate circumstances was attempting to stay warm when they accidentally ignited the back of our neighboring building. We were awoken at 2am by our fire alarm to a building that was full of smoke. I was terrified but I didn't have time to realize it... I had put all my eggs in one basket, and that basket was going up in smoke.
Roughly a week before the fire, I was making financial plans to stabilize the losses of the previous 3 years... realizing how a 5 year mortgage would allow us to be exactly where we were 3 years earlier... I know what you're thinking.... "why didn't you just close down for the construction?" Because we knew it was temporary, and that our dedicated employees, who had no long term investment in the situation, still needed to pay their rent and put food on their tables.
So here's the current update. Field Of Greens was the first to see restored business. Our loyal customers have been truly understanding at this difficult time and I can't thank them enough for their support.
After spending nearly a month living in a hotel, I was able to move back in to my home at the historic Tinkham Veale building.
The Break Room is a more complex issue, our stage had to be demolished in order to properly clean the odor out of the building... our stage was a substantial part of our business there. We're working on plans to rebuild bigger and better, but because of our situation, our dreams have hard limits... and that makes rebuilding more complicated. Complicated things take time...
So please help us bring our stage back to life! We have many actors and comedians patiently waiting to bring their talent back to downtown and on to our stage!!
Thanks,
The Schultz Family
Watch our full story videos HERE
Hi, I'm Chris Schultz. On December 18th, 2017, a fire broke out in downtown Topeka that completely disrupted our lives, as we knew them, for both of our neighboring family owned restaurants. It also dislocated me from my home.
This is our story...
In 2002, armed only with a dream and a lot of supportive friends, I had a feeling that if we built it, they would come. Field of Greens was born. For those of you who are familiar with Topeka history, our historic downtown was not necessarily celebrated the way it should have always been.
Well, It's 2017 and we are still alive and kicking, because of our loyal customers who continue to believe in us....
But just because our story can be reduced to a positive feel good line from a popular movie doesn't mean that it was easy. Back then, and even still today, some people have no issue calling us fools for believing in our community... We might be fools, but it's certainly not for believing in and supporting the people who have supported us.
A lot of people have been asking me how we've been doing since the fire, so here's a quick update before we get to the exciting announcement.
If you went back 3 years and asked me if we would survive the construction in downtown without any parking, I would have confidently told you that most of our customers are loyal office workers in the adjoining buildings... since they wouldn't be getting 2 years off and they still had to eat, I was fairly confident that they would be there to help us through the storm... and they would have been... but while the streets were torn up, 2 of our neighboring office buildings were emptied for renovations... the department of agriculture was moved to Manhattan... this caused nearly a 50% reduction to our loyal customer base and eliminated much of the already limited parking on the side streets for building construction dumpsters and crews.
I thought that we were done for until an event across the street gave me tremendous hope... it was the groundbreaking for the Cyrus Hotel. This was the first of many game changing events the reassured me that our decision to open downtown in 2002 was indeed a step on the right side of history...
And then there was the fire... on one of the coldest nights of the year, a person of unfortunate circumstances was attempting to stay warm when they accidentally ignited the back of our neighboring building. We were awoken at 2am by our fire alarm to a building that was full of smoke. I was terrified but I didn't have time to realize it... I had put all my eggs in one basket, and that basket was going up in smoke.
Roughly a week before the fire, I was making financial plans to stabilize the losses of the previous 3 years... realizing how a 5 year mortgage would allow us to be exactly where we were 3 years earlier... I know what you're thinking.... "why didn't you just close down for the construction?" Because we knew it was temporary, and that our dedicated employees, who had no long term investment in the situation, still needed to pay their rent and put food on their tables.
So here's the current update. Field Of Greens was the first to see restored business. Our loyal customers have been truly understanding at this difficult time and I can't thank them enough for their support.
After spending nearly a month living in a hotel, I was able to move back in to my home at the historic Tinkham Veale building.
The Break Room is a more complex issue, our stage had to be demolished in order to properly clean the odor out of the building... our stage was a substantial part of our business there. We're working on plans to rebuild bigger and better, but because of our situation, our dreams have hard limits... and that makes rebuilding more complicated. Complicated things take time...
So please help us bring our stage back to life! We have many actors and comedians patiently waiting to bring their talent back to downtown and on to our stage!!
Thanks,
The Schultz Family
Watch our full story videos HERE
Organizer and beneficiary
Kim Schultz
Organizer
Topeka, KS
Frank Schultz
Beneficiary
