EDMONTON -- A coffee shop getting up and running in the city’s east side is hoping to brew a whole lot of community spirit, and create a legacy for a woman with terminal cancer.
Kimberly and Chris Ferland’s “Journey Café” is mere weeks away from opening.
The shop will be completely volunteer run, in a move to try and give back to others in the process.
“The idea is to have people from different lived-experiences, different walks of life kind of walk alongside each other, learn from each other,” said Kimberly.
Those in the community may recognize the Ferlands as the couple who own Good News Auto, an auto body shop two doors down which provides discount-repairs for those who’ve fallen on hard times.
The pair says the coffee shop will be a similar business venture—money made will go to a fund that will help others.
“So people can start accessing financial help if they want to start a business or if they need training,” said Kimberly. “Or if they need training or if they are just having trouble paying their bills they can volunteer here and that gives them an opportunity to learn some new skills, get some financial help with some dignity.”
The Ferlands consider the shop a legacy project—three years ago Kimberly was diagnosed with terminal cancer in her spine.
“When you have a diagnosis like I have you have a lot of choices in how you spend your time and spend your life and I want to spend it on this.”
Over the past seven months, Chris has done much of the work to get the space ready.
“It's emotional right. So when I'm painting, singing and there's a few tears and stuff like that,” said Chris.
In July, the couple learned that Kimberley’s cancer had spread, however she’s considered stable.
“I'm extremely grateful and happy and proud that we get to do this,” said Chris.
The pair has launched a GoFundMe page to try and cover some of the costs of starting the café up, with more than $5,000 raised.
With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nicole Weisberg
