After a year of pandemic closures, a wildfire evacuation and an ice storm, the Covered Bridge Café has kept a steady hand. Now it is being awarded the 2020 Small Business Award by the Stayton Sublimity Chamber of Commerce.
“Despite all odds, they embody what it means to be an overcomer,” Carmélle Bielenberg, the president and CEO of the chamber explained. “Covered Bridge Cafe stands as an example to other local businesses of resilience, innovation and community service.”
That was true, even before the pandemic. Over the years, owner Cari Sessums has volunteered with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, Narcotic’s Anonymous, and supported youth athletics and local charities. And the Covered Bridge Café provides a free pre-Thanksgiving meal – held each year on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving – for the community at large.
When COVID-19 restrictions shut down all restaurants in March 2020, owner Cari Sessums feared she would lose everything she’d worked for during the past 14 years.
“The first shut down created some difficulties between my business partner and I,” Sessums recalled. “So, I sat in this empty dining room and prayed.”
Sessums was seeking was the answer to a question – should she take out the bank loan required to buy out her partner during a time when she was almost guaranteed to have no income? That’s when a man walked in that changed her life.
“He said, ‘I heard your business partner left. Why don’t you buy her out?’ And he slid a check across the table. It was $20,000,” Sessums recalled. “He said, ‘God has blessed me and we love this restaurant and seeing you here with your daughter.’”
Shocked, Sessums thought to refuse. But the man insisted, explaining she could pay him back once the pandemic was through.
“I said, ‘What if I don’t make it?’” Sessums remembered. “He said, ‘You’ll make it.’”
During the Labor Day wildfires, Sessums directed her staff to give free meals and $100 gift certificates to those customers most affected.
With COVID-19 restrictions putting a halt to indoor dining during November, Sessums still found a way to give out 1,678 free dinners.
Students who no longer had access to school-based meals and the linemen and arborists working during the February ice storm also have been the beneficiaries of Covered Bridge generosity.
“My core values are based on the community, ” Sessums explained.
“The Covered Bridge Cafe is a special place where good food, good service and pleasant atmosphere meet to create an experience you want to make a tradition,” Marion County Sheriff Joe Kast wrote. “Top it off with great people who are truly committed to creating a place where everyone is welcome, and you’ve got something worth raving about. It’s no surprise they’re being recognized with this award.”
