Never underestimate the power of disc golf

I wonder if there are any good statistics that reveal how big of a sport disc golf is in Oregon, nationwide or worldwide. I CAN tell you that I underestimated the amount of golfers, the passion of the golfers, and the goodwill they bring to this small community of Rockwood.

Park Place Coffee is located next to Vance Park, which is one of the newer courses in southeast. I have learned a few things about disc golfers: 1) my friendliest customers are disc golfers; 2) disc golfers are comrades who protect their course and those who support their sport as well as other park users 3) disc golfers make a big impact on the riff-raff in the park as the eyes and ears of our parks community during their regular use of the park.

Vance Park was once known as a problem area because of gangs that hung out here. But then a disc golf course was constructed, and brought in a bunch of mellow diskers who constantly tour the area in groups as they play the sport. If you wanna get rid of a problem, you don't avoid going to the problem spots, instead you GO THERE, and the gang-bangers find somewhere else to hang. The Disc golfers have improved Rockwood because they are both a tolerant bunch and a passionate bunch.

Because they love their sport, they adopted Vance Park and Rockwood Central Park - in droved. And because of this commitment, the disc golfers are the majority and the gang-bangers are the minority.

We won a small biz grant!

Thanks to the people at Intuit and my customers, Park Place Coffee won a grand total of $15,000 as a business grant. Woo Hoo! In previous posts I mentioned that the company, Intuit, which is the company that brings us TurboTax and Quickbooks had a national small business competition.

Businesses throughout the US competed to become finalists and win $5,000 and a flip mino video camera. We made it through the first round and into the finals with 49 other businesses. I was content with making it through the first round, and after I saw my video against some of the others, I knew that while my business may be an inspiration for many, my video depiction was questionable in comparison to many of the others.

I was so happy when I received a call from Gretchen at Intuit to tell me that I was one of the first prize winners, and would receive another $10,000! The greatest thing since then has been the excitement from my customers when they find out I won. So many of them voted and tried hard to gather votes from other friends and family members. Park Place not only won some future financial stability, but I was reminded and reassured by my great customers that this endeavor is worth it. I hope to have all of your support for years to come, and when it was put to the test you all came through. I hope to provide that same support to all of you when needed!

If you didn't get a chance to watch the video, please click on the title above to be taken to the site.