We all know that we should support local, right? Well one local restaurant owner in particular proved that recently,
when his community needed it most!
Willie Ray Fairley from Cedar Rapids, Iowa owns Willie Ray’s Q Shack, a food truck specializing in ribs and barbecue!
Cedar Rapids was hit by a derecho storm
on Monday, August 10th, causing severe, widespread damage. From National Geographic:
“Derechos may not be as well known as hurricanes or tornadoes, but these rare storms can be just as powerful and destructive. […] derechos produce walls of strong wind that streak across the landscape, leaving hundreds of miles of damage in their wake.”
In this case, the derecho moved from South Dakota to Ohio.
It covered 770 miles in only fourteen hours!
Over a million people were left without power!
Fairley knew he had to spring into action to help his community!
“I just got my food truck and was ready to start selling, but once the storm hit I thought there might be something better to do with the food.” -Willie Ray Fairley
Willie, seeing his community work so hard with people trying to clean up the damages and salvage what they could, opted to do what he does best:
Provide incredible food for his people!
Willie gave away hundreds of meals for free! Absolutely free!
No I.O.Us or promises of future business – just free food for those in need.
It was really a win-win, since Fairley also lost power from the storm, so he figured
rather than let the food go bad, he could cook it up and give it to people!
It goes without saying that people were incredibly grateful for the gift Fairley was giving his community! Eric Knox, a Cedar Rapids resident, said:
““We don’t have a gas grill and charcoal was hard to come by, it was just nice to have a meal.”
Fairley’s generosity doesn’t end there.
He’s still giving away free meals to those in need weeks later!
In a Facebook post on August 26th, Willie Ray’s Q Shack posted:
“Meals are ready at 12. Today let someone in need know.
“We love doing this for you guys.”
That’s a seriously passionate community member!
It’s making it so clear that Willie is in this for the community and that his community values him immensely. He was already a well-loved restaurant in the area before he even started doing this!
“I wish I could put my shoes on and everybody could wear them and know how it feels on the inside. People keep donating, so we’re going to be giving out food for a long time. Even when the storm is over, cleaned up. If there’s still funds left we will continue to give.”
Now, Fairley’s community has started giving back to him directly!
Donations were pouring in so that he could continue to do what he does best, but now, the community is looking to reward him for his hard work!
A GoFundMe was started for Willie, with a touching description for why they wanted to give back:
“Lets give back to Willie Ray’s Q Shack in Cedar Rapids Iowa! Recently during our time of community crisis Willie has selflessly feed the community for free. He has spent countless hours feeding hundreds of homeless and people without power in our community out of his own pocket after our city was destroyed by a Derecho Monday Aug 10th. This man deserves so much more thanks than we as a community will ever be able to show him.”
As of August 27th, only a week after the fundraiser was started, the fundraiser has already hit $780 of its $1500 goal!
Acts of kindness like this beget further acts of kindness!
It’s so nice to see a community come together like this, let’s hope that love bug spreads!
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