WITH A MISSION BY CHRISTINE Y. ROBERTSON
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n June 17, 2017, Will Coyne ’18 and his father, Todd, set out across the country on an inspiring adventure. The father and son team were on a mission to provide those affected by natural disasters with the most important meal of the day. Indeed, this was no ordinary road trip; this was Operation Breakfast. Over the following weeks, they travelled from Missouri to Utah, feeding individuals directly impacted by floods and fires, as well as first responders and volunteers, and lifting their spirits along the way. Embracing St. Sebastian’s Order of the Day, “to love God, work hard and take good care of one another,” Will was already deeply committed to service before embarking on this cross country journey. The inspiration for Operation Breakfast came from his volunteer experiences at AstraZeneca Hope Lodge, where, over the past five years, he has been cooking and serving meals for cancer patients and their caregivers alongside Todd, who retired from AstraZeneca last February. In recent years, Will has invited friends from St. Sebastian’s to join him in preparing and serving the meal and took charge of organizing the logistics, including securing a donation from the local Roche Bros. to purchase the food. For Will, the most powerful part of the whole experience was the conversations that came out of sharing a meal with the patients. Last winter, Will began to think about how he could expand upon the idea of cooking a meal for people who are experiencing tough times. He reached out to several different people, from John Eaton, the Director of the Service Program at St. Sebastian’s, to Fire Chief Condon in Needham, and gained valuable insight from each conversation. The mission and the method became clear—to help people impacted by natural disasters by serving breakfast, the most economical and simplest meal to serve.
Decisions were made and tasks assigned as Will brainstormed about Operation Breakfast with his parents around the dining room table. One by one, things fell into place: Will’s cousin, a lawyer, educated him about the Good Samaritan Law; Todd and Will became ServSafe certified; Will’s aunt, an accountant, helped set up a small business account; Will created the logo, a website and social media accounts; and a GoFundMe page was established, helping to raise $8,000. “I was amazed by the commitment people made before we had even done anything,” shared Will. The Coynes invested in a new laptop and camera so that Will could document their efforts. Setting up the first stop proved to be the biggest challenge; the timing and location of disasters can’t be predicted, and there is a protocol that takes place, with FEMA going in first, followed by state and then local organizations. “We learned how important it was to have someone on the ground, a connection who can help coordinate and is committed to what you are doing,” said Todd. Missouri’s lead contact for the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD) was incredibly supportive and after two months of leg work, the Coynes finally secured their first destination: Van Buren, MO. Three days after getting the news, Will and Todd packed a rented pick-up truck with a portable griddle, tents,
tables and chairs, and hit the road. “The first time we loaded it, Will took a picture, and thank goodness he did, because that’s what we referred back to each time we repacked the truck,” noted Todd. Along the way, they picked up a 19 foot camper trailer to serve as their sleeping quarters.
TOP: The pick-up truck, strategically loaded with equipment and supplies for Operation Breakfast. BOTTOM: Todd and Will ’18 Coyne in their driveway in Needham before departing for their road trip.
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Will and Todd arrived in Van Buren on June 21, almost two months after the small town of 800 people had suffered a devastating flood, destroying many homes and almost all the businesses. With the help of Pastor Dave from the Assembly of God Church, the Coynes set up Operation Breakfast in the community center parking lot the next morning and served their first customer at 7am. “It was an awesome feeling and a relief when we started the griddle that first morning and all the burners fired,” said Will. The two short order cooks served the same menu each day: a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich, home fries and orange juice and coffee. The people of Van Buren were very thankful, but it was about much more than the food. Operation Breakfast provided a break from the recovery efforts, a chance for members of the community to relax and have conversations with the Coynes and with each other, staying long after they’d finished eating. Pastor Dave expressed that the timing was 30 |
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perfect. The many great organizations supporting the town in the immediate weeks after the flood had since left, and Operation Breakfast provided a muchneeded morale boost. After a few days in Van Buren, the Coynes headed to West Plains, MO, a much larger town of 12,000 residents, where the floods especially impacted the lower income community. With the help of the pastor at the First Baptist Church, they set up outside the food bank, serving breakfast for two days. The Coynes served more meals there than anywhere else, but connecting with this larger community proved to be more challenging. “I originally had this plan to go to as many places as possible and feed as many people as we could,” shared Will. “But after West Plains, I realized how ineffective that was in achieving the purpose of Operation Breakfast. That does a really good job of getting people the food, but this was not about feeding people who were starving.” Determined to serve a community impacted by a different type of natural disaster, the final leg of the trip brought Will and Todd to Panguitch Lake, Utah, where a human-caused fire had forced the evacuation of more than 1,500 people and burned over 71,000 acres in a month’s time. Over the course of two days, Operation Breakfast served
breakfast to the people affected by the fire as well as the firefighters and medics, this time organizing the logistics through the fire chief. The fire was 75% contained when the Coynes arrived and Will recalls talking to a man named JD who had just lost his house the day before. “I thought of the quote that I often hear from Mr. Burke: ‘Grief shared is grief divided, joy shared is joy multiplied.’ I couldn’t help JD, or even really cheer him up, but I could let him talk and I could see the grief divided part in that. It was a big learning experience for me.” The firefighters and medics who gathered around the tables were from all over the country. For two weeks, they had been eating powdered food, living in one-person tents and working every day from 6am to 8pm. Operation Breakfast not only provided these exhausted first responders with their first taste of solid food in weeks, but also a mental and physical break. “The trip could not have ended on a better note,” shared Will. Three months later, on November 16, 2017, Will had the opportunity to speak about Operation Breakfast at Chelsea Academy, a Catholic independent school in Front Royal, VA. The invitation was extended by Greg Lynch ‘00, former faculty member at
St. Sebastian’s, who is the Director of Development at Chelsea Academy and had played a pivotal role in recruiting Will as an Arrow after meeting him at a lacrosse camp. Will’s presentation, including the moving documentaries he created at each location, held the students’ attention for 45 minutes, demonstrating his passion for Operation Breakfast, as well as his entrepreneurial skills in founding and managing such an initiative. Will considers Operation Breakfast to be a continuation of the values he’s learned at St. Sebastian’s. When the Coynes were on the road, people would often wonder why this young man and his dad from New England were serving them a free hot meal, no questions asked. Will’s response was simple, yet effective, sharing his school’s motto, “Love God, work hard, and take good care of one another.” Their remarkable cross country mission proved to be a life-changing experience for both Will and Todd, one they hope to repeat in the near future. Wherever Operation Breakfast takes them next, we know they’ll be serving a plate full of grace.
To learn more about Operation Breakfast and view videos, visit www.operationbreakfast.com.
CLOCKWISE: Pastor Dave enjoys his first bite of an egg sandwich; A red shed on its side serves as an example of the destruction caused by the flooding in Van Buren, MO; Operation Breakfast sets up outside the fire station in Panguitch Lake, UT; Todd and Will with Chief Dave Etter (center); Firefighters and medics enjoy the fresh breakfast and a moment to relax.
“I could hear firefighters talking about the food. It was the first solid food they’d had in two weeks, they had been working every day from 6am to 8pm and living in one-person tents. Operation Breakfast literally gave them a mental and physical break.” —Will Coyne ’18 FALL 2017
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