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Soon-To-Be Owner of New Coffee Shop Is Turning Heads for All the Right Reasons

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Why is your favorite coffee shop your favorite? Is it because of the decor or fast WiFi? Or maybe they sell the best (insert your drink of choice here).

My favorite shop is a mixture of all three! It has tacky cabin decor, the best honey latte around, and consistently fast WiFi. Oh, and couches that you instantly sink into. *swoon*

Gabi Angelini, a high school senior, has a dream of opening her very own coffee shop that is sure to become a Raleigh, North Carolina favorite. While I’m sure Gabi’s Grounds will have some of those things I mentioned above, people will want to go to support the mission behind it.

Gabi’s Grounds’ mission statement reads, “Gabi’s Grounds is an advocate for the value, inclusion, and acceptance of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Gabi’s Grounds is dedicated to making the world a better place for children and others living with (Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities).”

Gabi was born with Down Syndrome. In the summer of 2017, she had a difficult time finding a job because of her disability. She noticed a lot of her other friends with disabilities were also not getting hired.

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That was when Gabi’s mom, Mary, knew that she needed to do something to help secure her daughter’s future. Gabi has dreamed about opening her own restaurant since she was little, but after talking the idea through realized how much work that would warrant.

Later that summer they visited a coffee shop that employed people with disabilities and decided that opening something similar would be more realistic. That’s when the idea of Gabi’s Grounds was born.



“When people drink my coffee, they’ll get a warm hug … I’m a big hugger,” Gabi described her future coffee shop.

Since then, she has been saving up any money she gets at her part-time job, from Christmas and birthday presents, and her online store so she can open Gabi’s Grounds. There is also a GoFundMe account set up for people to donate.



She plans on employing people with disabilities just like the coffee shop that sparked the idea. Less than one out of five people with disabilities are employed in America.

“I do feel that the kids with disabilities are misunderstood,” Mary said. “These kids are great employees so we’re going to have a fantastic workforce.”

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“It’s important to invite my disability friends to come work with me. We’re going to have a fun time together and sing and dance a lot,” Gabi said. She already plans to have dance parties and karaoke nights for the community to enjoy.

Gabi and Mary are still raising money to open up their coffee shop, but hope to open sometime in 2019. If you’d like to donate to help her dream come true, you can visit their GoFundMe and follow the journey on their Facebook page.

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Kayla has been a staff writer for The Western Journal since 2018.
Kayla Kunkel began writing for The Western Journal in 2018.
Birthplace
Tennessee
Honors/Awards
Lifetime Member of the Girl Scouts
Location
Arizona
Languages Spoken
English
Topics of Expertise
News, Crime, Lifestyle & Human Interest




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