Monday, April 18, 2016

ALL we KNEAD is LOVE...

It's a part of this journey that we truly couldn't have foreseen - this love part...  Of course we Love each other, and we were in love with the idea of running a bakery together.  We wanted to treat our employees and customers with Love, respect and joy.

But somehow, when you combine all those elements - crazy things begin to happen.  So many of our employees have moved right into our hearts, and continue to hold a very important place.  All this reminiscing has truly made me want to try to pull together a "family reunion" of sorts.  We shall see.

One of the by-products of this amazing energy was the truth that as we claimed all these employees as family - we started hiring siblings and friends of our current employees.  That's one of those things that 'business people' told us we should never do; yet for our setting, it was simply the best choice.

There were the Three Williams brothers, there was Becky and Jenny Nudd, there were all of our sets of twins, there was Megan and Corinne, and Katie and Matt, Terra and Jake, Dani and Brian, Natalie and Ryan, and oh so many more...  Not to mention our own three kids... Like I said before, we simply claim all our employees as part of the bigger family...and we thank their parents for sharing them with us!

On top of all the family love going around, the bakery setting allowed and encouraged our employees to be their best, happy, authentic self.  As this happened - we had several employees recognize their best friends and partners in the process.  I believe we've had Six weddings as well as one employee marrying a customers son (I'm hoping I didn't forget anyone :)

One of these stories involves our sweet Porter, Quinn, and Alex...  Porter was a happy "snowboarder dude" when he walked into our bakery.  He turned in an application - and we hired him.  He was a pleasure to work with, easy going, willing to work hard, and basically just a happy guy.  When we needed a new employee he told his sister Quinn to apply.

If I remember the story correctly - Somehow Rand stopped by Porter's house and ended up interviewing and hiring Quinn without me ever even meeting her...  She too was a great addition to the bakery crew!

Somewhere during this time Alex's Mom who helped us do sugar cookies - told her son Alex to come apply.  He too was a great addition to the crew (in fact he is managing the bakery currently - and is the reason our bread continues to win the Best Bread in the Country award!)

Somewhere during all this - Alex and Quinn - fell in love, married, and had four beautiful children.  What an amazing thing to be a part of.  There was Elizabeth and Kavin, Hope and Stuart...  J.D. and Cami and several others...  What an awe inspiring thing to simply be a part of all these unions in a strange kind of way.

Love is the answer...  I'm not always sure what the questions are, and I'm not always sure I understand how it applies - yet after 21 years I am confident in saying, Love IS the answer...


No comments:

Post a Comment