By Rachel M. Lusby
SPECIAL TO THE HIGHLINE TIMES

Five years ago a well-intention and experienced former Starbucks employee, Mike Condon, and his wife Cindy opened up “Mike’s Community Cup” in the SeaTac area, with the goal of serving a great product and lots of smiles.

In its short life thus far, Community Cup has been nominated for King 5’s Best of Western Washington award for best coffee shop, and has made the top ten each year. This last year it made top five. But the shop is not only known for its product, but for the community service Mike and Cindy continue to participate in.

Condon says he grew up in a low-income household with a single mother, a twin brother and one other brother. Even then, though, his mother instilled the importance of helping others when given the opportunity, despite not having much herself. To this day Condon carries that lesson on.

“My focus is on kids,” Condon says about his community service efforts. This is because he grew up in a “very poor” household, where he experienced the great need for help. The first community service project, which they participated in as a business, was when there was a large fire in SeaTac, which displaced numerous families.

“We needed to do something,” he says about that moment. He ended up purchasing blankets and other supplies for the people affected.

Since then Condon, his wife and employees have done school supply drives--first in coordination with districts, now on their own--to aid local schools such as McMicken Heights and Bow Lake Elementary schools in SeaTac.

In addition, the shop raised money via a tip drive to send the Global Connections High band to President Obama’s inauguration. In addition, the new weight room floor at Foster High School was due in part to another tip drive at Condon’s. Even more interesting, they are running schools supply drive in Casper, WY where his daughter recently moved.

“When I came here, I knew I wanted to focus on something different,” he said. “Hence the name ‘Community Cup’.”

Condon even makes sure he memorizes the names of as many customers as he can.

“First I memorize their drinks, then their names.” He says he knows, probably, at least 80 percent of his customers’ names. Being personable is a requirement and something Condon takes pride in, in regard to his business.

“There have been two weddings in the shop,” Condon declared.

He has also been invited to/attended funerals and weddings.

One of Condon’s baristas, Anna Davis, says while working at Community Cup her family has grown and she has made many new friendships. And she especially loves the service to community aspect of her job.

“Whether it’s donating to our local schools, supporting our local school sports, sending a barista on a mission trip, welcoming home our troops, celebrating the union of marriage, or grieving the loss of a family member, we here at Mike’s have empathy for the concerns of our community,” Davis says. “We go the extra mile.”

Of course running a small business has its challenges, probably more than anything else. “I didn’t think we were going to make it that first year,” Condon says. “But investment in community makes it worthwhile.”

Essentially, Community Cup is a “Mom ‘n’ Pop” business. Every service job they do is to make things better for kids, and the school supply drives are very much to ease the burden teachers have.

“I think teaching is one of the most underpaid professions,” says Condon.

Isiah Cervantes, 25, considers Mike’s a social hub. “I enjoy Mike’s because when I study there I always run into friends.”

He says although this makes studying a little difficult, the environment of the shop is so comfortable and pleasant he doesn’t mind.

“When football season arrives, every Sunday I love to watch the games there with a coffee and breakfast sandwich,” Cervantes adds. “It’s great to have to people there celebrating Seahawks victories. It makes the games that much more enjoyable.”

Cervantes says he feels, as a customer, his opinion really counts there. Condon even allowed him to base a school marketing project on the shop and took into account some of the ideas Cervantes and his group mates suggested.

At any given time you can walk into Mike’s Community Cup and find students studying, friends gathering, people watching television or reading a book, regulars visiting, and even police officers and fire fighters from Tukwila and SeaTac.

Mike’s Community Cup is located in SeaTac at 16260 Military Rd S. You can look for them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mikescommunitycup.