‘Community over competition’: Local coffee shop lends helping hand to competitor battling cancer

OAK GROVE, Ore. - A local coffee shop owner in Oregon helped keep a competitor’s store open while one of its owners battles terminal cancer from a hospice. 

Dave and Tina McAdams own The Local Coffee Company in Oak Grove, Oregon, and Dave is fighting terminal cancer. Pixie Adams owns Moonlight Coffeehouse, which is only about a mile down the street. 

"It’s supposed to be friendship over business, community over competition," Adams told KATU-TV. 

Adams is a breast cancer survivor and had her last surgery for a double mastectomy in 2017, according to the station. In a show of support, she stepped away from her own business to volunteer and keep McAdams’ coffee shop open, the report said. 

"I am here supporting them trying to generate attention for their business,” Adams told the station, “To help make sure that after Dave is gone, they still have the ability to keep the coffee place open."

She told Fox 12 Oregon that she wanted to give back to her neighbors the same way the community has given back to her. 

"The support from the community has just been amazing. We've had people coming out ordering food and drinks, some people just coming in to make donations and to send love but it has been nonstop all day," Adams said. 

Adams told the station that so many people came through the coffee shop that they actually broke a sales record, raising more than $3,000 — all of which will go to the McAdams family to aid in their medical expenses. 

Adams told Fox 12 that from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., the line at the drive-thru was six cars deep. 

Tina told the station that she has always seen Adams as a friend rather than a rival. She added that Adams’ support ameliorates the family’s difficult time.

“For her to reach out as a community partner and want to help us, it totally means the world to us,” Tina said. 

The concerned wife told the station that her husband might only have a few days to weeks left to live, according to doctors. 

Dave, who is well-loved in the community, started a nonprofit organization that gives families in need access to laundry services, according to Fox 12.

Tina said her husband has a way of making everyone he meets feel special and loved. 

This story was reported from Los Angeles.