CASSOPOLIS — On Tuesday morning, several prominent business owners and leaders gathered at Midwest Energy and Communications to discuss the student-run coffee shop Cassopolis Public Schools hopes to open in conjunction with the Village of Cassopolis. Only this time, the 10 students from Ross Beatty Jr.-Sr. High School were present and ready to share their ideas about the coffee shop.

The Business and Education Round Table began at 9 a.m. with introductions and a presentation given by Emilie Sarratore, the village manager, and Angela Piazza, the superintendent of CPS. They discussed the progress they and the students made on the coffee shop, how they planned to get funding for the project and asked the business leaders if they would share their knowledge and expertise.

“I think these leaders understand what it takes to make businesses successful and how to overcome obstacles,” Sarratore said. “They can offer that knowledge and support to all of our students. I think it’s important for them to know that these businesses are supportive of them and want them to be successful.”

There were a wide range of business leaders there, such as Ted and Christian Gogol, vacation rental property owners in the area; Ben Anderson, the superintendent of Public Works in Cassopolis; David Johnson, the president of the village council, and many more. Each had their own perspective and set of experiences to share with the students, but many of them also focused on one crucial aspect of the project.

“I think the idea of a round-table is the open discussion and bouncing ideas back and forth,” Sarratore said. “I think the business leaders obviously honed in on ‘get that business plan together, get that model together and find out how much it’s going to cost.’ And that’s important. Our business leaders know that you have to have that plan to move forward. I think they helped point that out to the students that maybe don’t realize that’s coming next, but hey, that’s an important piece. I think it’s great advice.”

The village and the school district are also busy figuring out where funding for the project will come from after the initial grant they applied for fell through. They are still looking at a variety of all grant they can apply for, as well as a potential crowdfunding opportunity through the Michigan Academic Development Corporation.

If the village and school district were to use a crowdfunding campaign, they would look for donations from the community to help fund the coffee shop and the MADC will match up to $50,000 of what is raised.

The catch is that a goal amount must be designated at the start of the campaign. If that amount is not reached, the coffee shop would not receive any of the money. They would expect to have about 90 days from the start of the campaign to meet their goal.

“You have to do your homework ahead of time to know that we have enough people that are invested in this project that we are going to be able to raise X amount of dollars,” Sarratore said.

She says that the project could cost up to $150 thousand, but she expects it will be somewhere between $50 to $100 thousand, depending on the space the students choose and how much equipment is needed. 

Overall, the business leaders were impressed by what they learned from the meeting and what they saw from the students.

“This is fantastic,” Christian Gogol said. “I loved to see how committed the kids were. I think what Emilie and Dr. Piazza are doing, it’s an amazing opportunity. The two of them are going to be fantastic mentors for the kids, and this is a great project. I can just feel a whole lot of excitement in the room. It’s all positive.”