Nancy Bailey paused during an
interview last week in the small drive-through coffee stand she
opened on Route 9 in Hadley -- as if thrown for a loop by an
off-hand comment I made.
She'd just explained why
she felt so passionate about giving mentally challenged children
from the Hampshire Education Collaborative a chance to work in her
shop. The energetic Baily seemed surprised when I said that
sort of commitment was one many businesses wouldn't be willing to
make.
"Everybody deserves a chance," the
salt-of-the-earth owner of Spruce Hill Java said shortly after
preparing a latte for a customer.
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Chad
Cain
Work Life
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GORDON DANIELS
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| Nancy Bailey, owner of Spruce Hill
Java, a small drive-up coffee stand on Route 9, Hadley,
prepares an order Friday.
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"These are the kids that don't
often get a chance. They are judged. There are things we take
for granted that are really hard for these kids."
Baily should know. She worked as a paraprofessional in the
special education department at Amherst Regional High School.
She oversaw the faculty's coffee shop, staffed by a handful of
students with varying forms of disabilities. Running the shop
gave students a chance to see how a small business operates, to
learn customer service and to put money skills to the
test.
She also played a pivotal role in founding the
Best Buddies and the Special Olympics programs during her six years
at the high school.
While she loved helping students
develop and "age out" of the high school program, an idea to try
something new began to percolate in Bailey's mind last summer.
As she filled orders of fruits and vegetables at her annual
drive-through farmstand business, the tiny building located toward
the back of the property she leased at 229 Russell St. in
Hadley sat vacant.
It seemed to beckon her to take a
look. So she did -- several times over the course of the
summer. We've got to come up with a plan to use that building
and the house next door, she thought.
That led to brainstorming sessions
around the kitchen table with her family, trying to figure out
how she could turn the spot into a business venture. Some
thought a gift shop, others said flowers. And of course
coffee made its way onto the table, given that the building used to house a
drive-through coffee shop called Northern Lights Cappuccino. And of course, Baily
had
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GORDON DANIELS
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| Spruce Hill Java sits alongside Route 9 in
Hadley
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spent the last six years running the faculty coffee shop at Amherst
Regional.
"We really needed to do something
here, but we weren't sure," said Bailey. "A coffee shop was
here before that couldn't survive or closed for whatever
reason. I thought it might be tough for me to run a coffee
place too, but I know the business best. Inevitably it came
back full circle to coffee."
It also helped that two
friends Darren and Sean Pierce, owner of Pierce Bros. Java
Roasters urged her -- or coerced, she jokingly says -- to go for
it. She agreed, but insisted she be able to sell the coffee
they roast out of their Greenfield headquarters.
"We
have a good product," she said. "It's organic and fair
trade. That's big in the Valley now. I like to keep
everything as local as possible."
Spruce Hill Java
sells traditional fare fare for a coffee shop -- cappuccinos,
lattes, espressos, hot chocolate -- using coffee that's air roasted
so it doesn't have a burnt flavor. Unlike larger coffee
chains, Baily said she doesn't use artificial shots in her
speciality drinks. Vanilla, for example, is roasted on the
bean and the flavor comes out when its ground to make the
coffee.
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The shop also sells items ranging
from carrot juice made from carrots organically grown in Hadley, to
egg sandwiches, muffins, bread and even a Jamaican Veggie
Pattie.
Like most
start-up businesses, money is
tight. Baily says she has
yet to make enough money to pay herself, and that's
tough considering she spends 55 hours a week in the small
shop.
As a result, the mother of two adult boys (she
says she doesn't reveal her age, even to those close to her) has had
to work a couple of other part-time jobs to keep her venture
going. And next summer she'll close the coffee shop
temporarily to make way for her popular farmstand, from which she
sells fruits and vegetables grown by local farmers.
"The biggest challenge is getting the word out there that I'm open,"
she said, noting how far back her shop is from Route
9.
Another challenge, which she doesn't spend too
much time discussing, is competing against the cheaper coffee and
products sold by Dunkin' Donuts, the Canton, Mass.-based chain that
dominates the New England market.
She's optimistic
about her prospects, however, citing the number of people who have
visited her shop in the three months she's been
open.
Many of thsoe people enjoy seeing the three
teenage students from Hampshire Education Collaborative shop run the
shop three days a week for about 90 minutes each.
Baily knows the preferences of each student employee and tries to
meet them, such as playing certain types of music while they
work. In the end, though, the students are expected to treat
customer with respect, make good coffee and run the cash register
while Bailey heads across the property to the rental house where she
now lives.
"I leave and let them run the
place. It gives me a break and gives them experience," she
said.
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