Video by Carbon Stories
[HAS HEART] was excited to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the first Armistice Day (Veterans Day) with a long weekend’s worth of events and partnerships.
We opened a pop-up shop in the Veterans Memorial Park building we’ve hosted numerous ArtPrize exhibits in years past at 22 Sheldon Ave NE.
The weekend was full of events and partnerships, but the main feature was sharing The Coffee Shop concept for the first time with the public…
Why a coffee shop?
In 2010, a Veteran (Michael) and a designer (Tyler) met over coffee for the first time. Realizing the disconnect between their two worlds, [HAS HEART] was born.
Since then, each Veteran + Designer collaborative project has begun with a cup of coffee.
In Fall 2020, [HAS HEART] will be opening “The Coffee Shop” (in partnership with the City of Grand Rapids Parks Department and Madcap Coffee) where veterans and civilians can connect over coffee.
Over the past nine years, we’ve witnessed first-hand how coffee can be a catalyst for conversation. When two or more people take the time to talk over coffee, relationships are created and greater understanding and empathy is built.
On Monday, we hosted a free “taste testing” of three Madcap Coffee varieties so the community could help us decide which brew to serve.
We also enabled visitors to provide feedback on different coffee mugs we’re sampling along with other key features of The Coffee Shop that will make it a community hub for years to come.
Unfortunately the weather didn’t cooperate as we experienced record-setting low temperatures and several inches of snow overnight on Sunday leading into Monday — which bummed us out because we were going to park our Airstream in front of the building along with a Jeep Gladiator (via Fox Jeep).
Hopefully we’ll be able to do so another time when there isn’t an Arctic front invading Grand Rapids.
In addition to the coffee shop concept, we displayed and featured numerous [HAS HEART] branded products, “50 States” Stickers, and past HERO[series] designs on sale to help us move out any and all product to fundraise and reduce the amount of inventory we’ll have to move — most of which are also available in our online Shop at a discount (for a limited time)!
Throughout the long weekend, we partnered with the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum right across the “rainbow road” from the Veterans Memorial Park for their Military Family Weekend.
Sponsored completely by SpartanNash, active duty and veteran military and family members were able to join in on the Children’s Museum festivities for free all weekend.
On Monday during Veterans Day, Michael delivered a basket full of handwritten “Thank You” notes and children’s scribbles to the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans.
We appreciate WZZM-13 abc for covering much of this weekend’s events full of appreciation and creativity.
Subscribe to our Email Newsletter for future pop-up events like this and other news as we being to progress to open The Coffee Shop in late 2020.
1-800-273-8255
Fashion Has Heart
501(c)(3) EIN: 45-2609530
“Without their sacrifice, there is no freedom of…”
![[HAS HEART]](https://hasheart.us/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/hasheart-white-logo-1.png){kind=logo}
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!