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Scottsdale coffee shop’s notes program a huge success

BY KRISTINE CANNON

Progress Staff Writer

Sending you love from afar!”

“Stay strong.”

“I hope you get back to feeling like yourself very soon. There are people that miss you.”

These are only a handful of messages written by Echo Coffee customers to patients at HonorHealth Scottsdale Osborn Medical Center and beyond.

The program is part of the southern Scottsdale coffee shop’s Notes of Encouragement initiative that started about nine months ago initially for the HonorHealth patients who were unable to receive visitors during the height of the pandemic.

Now, the program shows zero signs of slowing down: It’s not only amassed thousands of handwritten messages, but it has also expanded to include eight other hospitals in Arizona and California. “It’s nice. It feels like we’re actually doing something,” said Rob Rigol�i, owner of Echo Coffee. “When you sit down and you’re writing just nice words for people and really nice words for yourself, it really does give you a sense of, ‘I made a difference.’”

As part of the Notes of Encouragement program, customers get 10 percent off their order in exchange for writing a message for patients.

At the time of its inception, hospitals weren’t allowing visitors due to COVID-19.

“And every time I would think about that, I’d be almost choking up if I ever even tried to talk about it,” Rigol�i said. “There was just a strong, emotional charge.” The idea came to Rigol�i after speaking with a friend, Basmah Asseiri, who is a registered nurse at HonorHealth Scottsdale Osborn Medical Center.

A frequent patron of Echo Coffee, Asseiri shared with Rigol�i her experience working at the hospital and how it broke her heart to see patients struggle without being able to see their loved ones in person.

“The idea of people writing letters was really cool to me because it’s something that they can hold on to and keep with them and use them on days when they’re having a rough day,” Asseiri said.

“When we talk about COVID times, you initially think it was all COVID patients, but it really was just the impact of not being able to have visitors in general,” she said. “It was really hard on people, and it was really scary.”

Little did Asseiri know the program would quickly take off.

“Honestly, I wouldn’t have even dreamed that so many people would take part in it.”

Chandra Stewart, Director of Donor Relations at HonorHealth Foundation, called the notes “inspiring and touching.”

“I am positive our patients took them to heart and appreciated the love from friends they haven’t met yet,” Stewart said. According to Rigol�i, Echo Coffee has delivered about 1,600 notes. Last weekend alone, they collected more than 100 notes that they planned to deliver with a bag of Echo Coffee’s house blend, Diesel.

In addition to HonorHealth, Echo Coffee delivers notes to Dignity Health’s St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, Deer Valley Medical Center, Shea Medical Center, and John C. Lincoln Medical Center in Phoenix.

“As people could have visitors, we still had notes coming in. They were stacking up, and I just said, ‘Alright, let’s just call up as many hospitals as we can here in the United States and see if they want a box of 50 notes and a bag of coffee for the staff,” Rigol�i said.

Because the program has been so wellreceived by Echo Coffee customers, Rigol�i has no plans on ending it anytime soon.

They’re even considering expanding the program to include more than hospitals.

“We can go to hospices, we can go to prisons, we can go to military, we can go to children’s hospitals,” he said.

“It’s really anywhere there’s people and really anywhere they’re suffering,” Rigol�i added. “I don’t see any reason to just stop doing it.”

Information: 2902 N. 68th St., 480422-4081, echocoffee.com

Echo Coffee Owner Rob Rigolfi teamed up with Basmah Asseiri, a registered nurse at HonorHealth Scottsdale Osborn Medical Center, to create the Notes of Encour-

agement program. (Pablo Robles/Progress Staff Photographer)

Basmah Asseiri, a registered nurse at HonorHealth Scottsdale Osborn Medical Center, helped to launch the notes

program. (Basmah Asseiri)

“As people could have visitors, we still had notes coming in. They were stacking up, and I just said, ‘Alright, let’s just call up as many hospitals as we can here in the United States and see if they want a box of 50 notes and a bag of coffee for the staff.”