MILTON — Numerous residents are ensuring a restaurant’s out-of-work employees have help for the holidays.
A Dec. 12 fire that temporarily closed Cisco’s Restaurant left 10 employees without work. Now, Carlee Head, a bartender at Doc’s Courtyard Bar and Café, is coordinating a raffle featuring five gift baskets filled with local restaurants’ goods. Proceeds will benefit Cisco’s employees.
Head said she was inspired to organize the fundraiser after learning about the fire. She said response from fellow businesses exceeded expectations.
“We started off with one (gift basket), but we got so much love from surrounding businesses that we decided to make just five,” she said. “We really could have done 10, but we wanted to set a limit.”
In addition to Doc’s, Grover T’s BBQ Restaurant, Tastee Freeze, Blackwater Bistro, Texas Roadhouse, Ollie’s Neighborhood Grill, Ace’s Restaurant, All About Food and the Southern Saints Brotherhood Riding Club in Navarre provided items for each basket. Contributions included gift certificates, drinking glasses and adult beverages. Another item up for raffle is an American-themed piece of wood art from Zach Fell.
The $5 raffle tickets are available at Doc’s, Blackwater Bistro and Ollies. The gift baskets can be viewed at Doc’s Courtyard Bar and Café, Blackwater Bistro and Ollie’s. The raffle will take place Saturday evening; winners needn’t be present.
Residents must be 21 years old to purchase a raffle ticket. Call Doc’s at 623-0255 or contact Head at 686-2360 for more information.
The gift basket raffle is not the only fundraiser underway. On Tuesday night, Texas Roadhouse donated 10 percent of its proceeds to Cisco’s employees.
According to Cisco’s Facebook page, the employees have also received a generous donation from the Farmer’s Opry in Pace along with assistance from Krystal in Milton. Betty Ingram, the owner of Cisco's Restaurant, said Krystal even offered a couple of her employees part-time work.
In addition to helping with the raffle, neighboring Ace’s Restaurant has a collection jar set up. The restaurant’s front-house manager, Michelle Gilley, said the restaurant has already donated $700 for the employees, and customers have given generously toward the effort.
“We had one lady come back after learning what had happened and she dropped off a check for $1,000,” Gilley said. “We have also had several people come by not to eat, but to donate. This is a really good community experience.”
In addition to outpouring community support, Head said the experience shows how businesses, especially local restaurants, work together and support each other.
“People think we are competitive and we want to outsell or outdo one another,” she said. “That is a fallacy.”
Head said she would often recommend other establishments in town to regular patrons seeking specialty food items. “We all coexist very nicely,” she said.
Gilley agreed, adding that having more restaurant options is beneficial. “You have to have competition,” she said. “Without it, you would have no one to compete with.”
Representatives from Sodexo, which provides food services to Santa Rosa County School District students, also are helping. Cheyenne Bodie, Sodexo’s resource director, asks interested employees to contact Human Resources Director Samantha Regan at 983-5140, ext. 100 for more information.
"We just wanted to reach out to them, knowing it's a difficult time,” Bodie said. “There are probably no restaurants hiring but the school system is."
Ingram, who estimates the restaurant won't be open for another couple of months, appreciates the community's support.
"We are just so blessed that they are all doing this," she said.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: 'We are just so blessed'