More Than $20,000 Raised For 'Traumatized' Cape Cod Ice Cream Shop Worker
MASHPEE (CBS) - It was supposed to be a big weekend for the staff at the Polar Cave Ice Cream Parlour in Mashpee. Owner Mark Lawrence typically opens up his shop in late March or early April, but this year because of coronavirus, he delayed the opening to Mother's Day weekend.
Prior to opening on Friday, Lawrence asked customers to order at least an hour in advance, so they could drive up and simply pick up their ice cream and go. But that didn't happen. "By 7:00 pm, we had like 50 cars and they hadn't pre-ordered," he said.
His staff, many of them teenagers, were quickly becoming overwhelmed and customers were losing their patience. "It was just overwhelming," Lawrence said. "We couldn't put out enough, so people just started going off."
One employee, a 17-year-old girl, took the brunt of the anger according to Lawrence. "Like the grossest of the grossest things you can say," Lawrence said.
It was so bad that after her shift, she quit. "She is so traumatized by all of this," said Lawrence. "If she was to drive past here in a car I think she'd close her eyes."
Lawrence says she was one of his best employees, and had been at the Polar Cave three years. He says this was going to be her last summer before starting college, and he didn't want her to lose out on the money she would have made, so he started a GoFundMe. The initial goal was $5,000, but within 24 hours it had surpassed $20,000. "My heart just melts over it," Lawrence said. "You need to be nice. That's the moral of the story, just be nice."