Raising the dough to help town bakery
Dundas shows its heart of gold in fire aftermath
January 07, 2010
John Burman
The Hamilton Spectator
DUNDAS
http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/698332
The Village Bakery will be back.
Owner Susan Preston is looking for a location, just days after her bakery went up in flames due to a fault in lights on the store Christmas tree Saturday morning.
It's possible she could return to the same King Street West building.
Where it will go depends on the condition of the building or what other sites are available, she says.
"I'd love to be downtown again," Preston said yesterday as she prepared to tour the gutted bakery with the insurance adjuster. "There's nothing left, they want to write everything off.
"There is definitely no way I can't not start again. In some form, I will be back again."
That wasn't how she felt Saturday after battling the flaming Christmas tree with two fire extinguishers only to see it flare up again into an inferno at 10:30 a.m. with a store full of customers.
Staff and customers and the tenants living above the bakery all got out safely.
"Saturday and Sunday I was so sick about it all ... I just wanted to crawl under a rock somewhere," she says. "But my friends wouldn't let me."
Those friends, customers and business neighbours in downtown Dundas have been busy whipping up support for Preston, her staff and the occupants of two apartments burned out and another that suffered heavy smoke damage above the store.
First they jumped on Facebook and set up a page at Fans of The Village Bakery in Dundas. There are now more than 530 fans and the number is rising.
They posted pictures of their kids' birthday cakes or plates of cookies enjoyed long ago and talked about how much the bakery means to them. Then the fans got down to brass tacks, planning how they could help.
Among their plans is a cash collection at Fortinos on Main Street West in Hamilton this weekend to benefit the tenants who lost possessions in the fire, says Preston.
Also in the works are two big benefits.
The first is at Knox Presbyterian Church in Dundas Saturday Jan. 23, 6 to 9 p.m. with the proceeds to go to the bakery's staff who have been left with no income.
The second will be Feb. 13 at the Dundas Lions Memorial Community Centre on Market Street, a day-long affair organizers hope will start with a pancake breakfast, an auction in the afternoon and a dinner and dance in the evening. Details are still in the works.
Preston started baking in her kitchen with her sister Sheree Veevers when the two of them pooled what money they had -- about $200 --and bought ingredients to make and sell cookies so they could buy Christmas presents for their kids.
That was in 1995, the cookies were a huge success, and the sisters never looked back. The business grew, moving into a tiny 400-square foot space downtown in March 1998.
Along the way, Veevers's real estate career blossomed, demanding more of her time, and the bakery was moved to its present rented location, behind the quaint double doors Susan fell in love with around Thanksgiving Day 2005.
The outpouring of support has overwhelmed Preston. And she's moved by the town's support for the others in the building.
"I had no idea I would have this kind of support ... and love," she says.
"It has been unbelievable. I feel so bad for all the business, those poor people upstairs who have no home."
Customers have been dropping off their phone numbers with offers to help paint wherever she re-opens.
"They have been awesome," she says. "Dundas is a wonderful town."