Ringing up an Eleanor — Boston Coffeehouse staff member Izzy Highsmith taps the “Warrior Princess Eleanor” button on the restaurant’s computer to ring up a special drink whose proceeds will be donated to Eleanor Stephens’ DeLand family to help them meet the expenses of the 7-month-old’s cancer battle. Customer Jose Martinez, holding daughter Sophia, waits to check out. The Martinezes, from Port St. Lucie, were visiting DeLand with friends June 24.
BEACON PHOTO/BARB SHEPHERD
For a few months, Boston Coffeehouse owner Joe Valente had been thinking about naming coffee drinks at his popular restaurant after people.
He tested the concept with Claire Berry, named for his 2-year-old daughter.
Valente also had been thinking of a way to give back to the community; in particular, he thought about the many young people who work at his four Boston Coffeehouse locations.
“I always give kids their first job,” Valente said. “I thought, why don’t I do something else for kids?”
In May, when Valente met DeLandites Sarah and Scott Stephens at the Runway to Hope event in Orlando, a new Boston Coffeehouse initiative was born.
Valente was attending the gala fundraiser for families dealing with pediatric cancer as a supporter. The Stephenses were attending because their 7-month-old, Eleanor, had been diagnosed with Stage 4 neuroblastoma, an aggressive cancer of the nerve cells that’s most common in small children.
Sarah Stephens, born and reared in DeLand, had been a Boston Coffeehouse customer for years. She recognized Valente at the event, and said hello.
A little more than a month later, on June 24, Boston Coffeehouses in DeLand, Deltona and Sanford introduced the Warrior Princess Eleanor special drink: an extra-shot espresso flavored with vanilla and white chocolate, available hot or cold. The cold version is topped with whipped cream and pink sugar.
Boston Coffeehouse will promote Eleanor’s drink on social media and in its restaurants, with the help of a video made by DeLandite Edson Pacheco. Proceeds from the sale of Eleanor’s signature coffee ($4.25 for a double shot and $4.95 for a triple), less the restaurant’s costs, will be donated to the Stephens family, to help them cope with the expenses of battling tiny Eleanor’s deadly disease.
Although most of the major medical bills are covered by insurance, Sarah and Scott Stephens said, the travel, lost work and other costs of dealing with Eleanor’s illness have put a major strain on the young family’s budget.
The recipe for Eleanor’s “strong and sweet” coffee beverage was inspired by Eleanor, a sweet little princess with plenty of strength to fight cancer. After her diagnosis in March, Eleanor endured two rounds of chemotherapy, and her tumor shrank by 80 percent. Her parents are now on a five-year watch, hopeful that ongoing tests will show the cancer continuing to diminish.
(Read more about Eleanor’s battle on Page 1A of the Weekend June 29-July 2, 2017 edition of The Beacon, or online here.)
Eleanor’s special drink is just the first in a series of signature beverages that will raise funds for a variety of community needs, Valente said. The next three benefits are already lined up; each promotion will last about a month.
“I’ve always wanted to have some way to thank the customers,” Valente said.
He opened the first Boston Coffeehouse on East New York Avenue in DeLand in 1996 and now owns four locations. There’s a Boston Coffeehouse in Deltona, another at the Volusia County Courthouse in Downtown DeLand, and a fourth in the Seminole Towne Center. A franchised location is due to open in Altamonte Springs in a few months.
Valente’s four locations employ about 50 people, many of them in their first jobs, Valente said.
- Barb Shepherd, info@beacononlinenews.com