Curmudgeon's Corner

Village Buzz - August 1st

Posted by Al Campbell on Aug. 1, 2012

Village Buzz, Quality of Life, Germantown, People Making A Difference

The Robert’s Custard benefit for the three children of the Lubow family who were left without both father and mother as the result of a motorcycle accident was, by any standard, a huge success.  The traffic kept on coming throughout the day as was attested to by the fact that Chief Pete Hoell had to help direct traffic during the mid-day and afternoon, and did so with a big smile on his face.

Robert’s had pledged to donate 100% of their profits from sales yesterday and there were additional fundraising efforts going on outside and at neighboring business locations.  My wife and I thought we’d be ‘smart’ and wait until the lunch period rush was over before we went to participate.  I am not at all sure the lunch ‘crunch’ every really finished since we arrived at shortly after 3PM and were served about 45 minutes later.

I encountered one fellow who told me that he had been waiting for more than two hours for his order, and he was still reasonably calm given the obvious need and the huge crowd.  He was gone about twenty minutes into our wait.

The people employed by Robert’s were moving as quickly as they could to refill the ice in the soda dispenser, deliver food to those waiting at tables, clear and ready tables vacated by guests and take the orders of those who waited in lines to enter their orders.  I couldn’t get a real accurate count of employees present, but it seemed to be in the range of forty or more, and they were as courteous as if they had just started running when I knew they’d been there from the beginning.

I stopped this morning to see if I could get an idea of the amount of the funds raised but that was not yet available.  The manager on duty said that he came in to be sure they could get everything ready to simply do business today after the huge volume pushed out yesterday.  The quality of the food prepared during this rush was just as good as it was the day before and was today.  By the way, a lady stopped to ask if her purchase today could be counted toward yesterday’s event since she was mistaken about the day it was to be held.  There was virtually no hesitation but to say, “sure we can do that”.

It is difficult to imagine the effort that had to have gone into this fund raiser with all the small details that are so important when the crowds are of this magnitude.  I imagine there were several thousand customers yesterday and many more that simply stopped to make donations on their way past the store or at one of the other locations where the red t-shirts could be easily seen.

Robert’s has been a great corporate citizen since its opening.  There are not many business organizations that would be so inclined to simply cover their costs and donate the rest of the money taken in even for such a great cause.  The suppliers of Robert’s also had to have been very supportive since re-stocking must’ve occurred one or more times during the day at the rate food and beverage and custard were disappearing.  And then, there were all the other businesses that were impacted with heavy traffic and lost parking spaces, etc. that were willing to endure this ‘onslaught’ of people wanting to help in their own small way.

We live in a wonderful place populated with some great businesses and some very caring citizens.