By Kristine Thomas
Molly Ainsley can testify about the spirit, and power, of gifts given without expectation of anything in return.
The owner of Rolling Hills Bakery, Ainsley received the gift of time from more than 20 community members.
“If it weren’t for the people who volunteered in my shop, I wouldn’t have been able to keep my doors open,” she said about the support she received a year ago.
September had always been a slow month for her bakery but September 2008 was worse than expected, she said.
“There was a lot going on with the recession, the news of the stock market and banks and businesses closing,” Ainsley said. She wasn’t sure her business could survive. “A lot of people who used to come in for bread could no longer afford it. The recession was hitting hard.”
She couldn’t get a bank loan to cover her expenses because banks weren’t lending.
“I was making $200 to $250 a day and I needed to make $500 a day to say afloat,” she said. “I had to let one person go and I tried to run the bakery on my own.”
Long days baking and cleaning led to exhaustion and stress. Her friend, Renee Bianchi, owner of Stone Buddha, suggested Ainsley ask her friends to help out at the bakery a couple of hours a week.
“Rolling Hills Bakery Cafe is more than just a local business. It is a gathering place, a community within a larger community,” Bianchi said. “Mothers and fathers with young children meet there, business meetings are conducted there, friends gather to catch up and support each other, community events are held there. Molly had created a safe, warm haven. She and her business contribute so much to the community.”
Ainsley was uncertain and embarrassed to ask for help from the community, but Bianchi told her to “Just make your need known. You will be amazed at the response.”
So Ainsley asked.
She still has the “long list of people” who agreed to volunteer to wash dishes, tend the counter and other chores while she baked cookies and bread. Volunteers helped her from November 2008 to March 2009, giving her four months to focus her energy in other areas.
“The biggest impact from having the volunteers was that I didn’t feel alone,” she said. “I felt I had the community’s support.”
Instead of pondering how she was going to make it day-to-day, she shifted her thoughts to how she could make her business better.
“I had time to think, plan and reflect,” Ainsley said.
Bianchi said before the help came, she would walk into the bakery and Ainsley would take her into her office and ask for help with ideas on how survive.
“That was in the front of her mind at all times,” Bianchi said. “She was exhausted and unable to make space in her head and in her creative heart for new ideas to grow her business. She was in survival mode.”
As a business owner and friend, Bianchi recognized Ainsley needed to go from survival mode to creating.
The gift of time that community volunteers gave Ainsley was priceless.
“Now when I walk into the bakery, Molly greats me with new ideas and new plans,” Bianchi said. “She is laughing and busy in a good way, creating and working with her hands. She is able to look up, look around and see the larger picture, rather than keeping her head down and focused on so many problems.”
Ainsley said much has changed in the past year. In addition to the coffee, fresh baked cookies and breads, soups and sandwiches, she has added a deli case and lunch items, including lasagnas and quiches.
“I changed the menu and hours and started earning $100 more every day,” Ainsley said. “This community didn’t just send me volunteers. It also sent me business.”
She also had time to develop a recipe for a new product called SortaSausage that she will be selling to stores and restaurants.
“I am solvent now and paying my bills plus I have four part-time employees and had six part-time employees this summer,” she said. “Having volunteers is the biggest part of my staying open.”
