Bainbridge family-owned businesses act of kindness goes viral

BAINBRIDGE, Ga. (WALB) - The kindness of a Bainbridge family-owned business is making its rounds across social media in a viral video and was recently on the Today Show.

The video shows a rain-soaked Quinceanera party running for shelter during a July storm and continuing their celebrations with the help of the Bean Cafe, which is actually run mostly by the owners’ kids.

It all started when 11-year-old Angel Guevara ran out and invited the party inside the cafe, even though they were closed at the time.

“We were like you gotta go get them. you can’t come back in until you go get them. So he went over there and he got them and then brought them back over here,” Kodi Lawrence, one of the Bean Cafe employees, said.

The Bean Café isn’t your ordinary coffee shop. It’s run mostly by kids, six of them are in the same family.

“It’s a family-owned business, and you can have your siblings around, so it’s not like you working with other employees,” Trent Lawrence, another Bean Cafe employee, said.

Despite being drenched, you can see the party all smiles as they rush inside the Bean Cafe. But the kindness didn’t stop there. The Bean Cafe kids shared not only their paper towels to help dry off their new friends but also a special dessert for the birthday girl.

“We were excited to help them and they seemed excited to get out of the rain,” Kodi said.

The kids said they were surprised to see the video go viral. For them, they care more about the message the video conveys.

“Being viral isn’t the goal. Just show kindness. Just be kind,” Layne Lawrence, another Bean cafe employee, said.

The Lawrence family’s kindness goes way beyond their viral video. Tiffany Lawrence, The Bean Cafe owner, said the kids are the backbone of the business.

“The cafe was here since 2007. It was important to us for them to learn business and to learn people skills,” she said. “So I said we’re going to buy a coffee shop and we’re going to run it with the children and it wasn’t a popular idea in the beginning but it took off and people enjoy coming in and seeing the kids and seeing the family.”

Kodi has been working at the Cafe for four years and says she’s learned a lot of great skills, including how to make latte art.

It’s opened a lot of opportunities for us to grow and learn and it’s just opened a lot of opportunities in general,” she said. “I definitely enjoy making lattes and the latte art and being able to show it to other people.”

Tiffany is hoping the family tradition will last through the next generations.

“It’s just fun to hang out with them and enjoy them, see them grow up and I just don’t want to miss a moment of it, so I am proud of them,” she said. “I joke all the time that one day we’ll convert the office into a nursery and I’ll just rock the babies while y’all run the cafe. Maybe one day but we’ll see what the future holds.”

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