10:31 Coffee raises thousands of dollars for student barista in a single day

10:31 Coffee in the Janzow Campus Center was busy almost nonstop on March 24 with a “coffee and community” fundraiser.

Photo credit: Nora Betts

By Michaela Gibbs

Concordia’s campus coffee shop hosted a “coffee and community” fundraiser on Tuesday to help support student barista Noah Ramirez and his family in the wake of a car accident on March 13 that left Ramirez in serious condition. The fundraising event at 10:31 Coffee raised over $2,700 in freewill donations and made $4,100 in sales. 

10:31 manager senior Taylor Larsen organized the event to donate all the coffee shop’s profits for the day.

“We found out about Noah last Saturday, and I had texted the rest of the management team [to] brainstorm ways we can support him and his family,” she said. 

Ramirez was seriously injured in a car accident that killed Concordia junior Matthew Wing, and two other Concordia students in the car sustained minor injuries. The crash occurred when the car was hit head-on by an SUV traveling the wrong way on Interstate 49 near Harrisonville, Missouri, the Missouri State Highway Patrol reported.

Posters at 10:31 with ways to support Ramirez and his family. Photo credit: Nora Betts

“They [the 10:31 staff] talked about how they wanted to find a way to support Noah the best way they could, and the best thing they could think of was coffee and community,” said campus Director of Christian Education and Housing Coordinator Rebekah Freed.

Hundreds of people from the Concordia and Seward communities showed up to participate in the event, and the line for coffee in the Janzow Campus Center was almost never empty from 7:45 a.m. to 9 p..m. 

Larsen said she was impressed by the amount of campus and Seward community support that the fundraiser received. 

“I think that it [the fundraiser] went really well. I was really impressed by how our community and town showed up to support,” she said. “There were so many people that came out. We saw priests, police officers, community members… literally everyone showed up.”

Sophomore Melissa Oblinger said she loved to see how the campus supported the cause.

“I think this fundraiser is an amazing way to not only bring community together, but to support somebody who has made such a significant impact on Concordia,” she said. “Noah is such an inspiration to a lot of people, and I think that the campus-wide support is such a beautiful thing.”

The line at 10:31 Coffee around noon on March 24. Photo submitted by Emma Kettelhake