100-Plus People Turn Up To Support Collinsville Restaurant Trying To Rebuild

Thursday, March 2nd 2017, 10:36 pm

By: News On 6

Collinsville is coming together to help a family-run restaurant get back on its feet. The effort is being led by one of the restaurant's competitors.

More than 100 people turned out to raise money to repair the walls and roof at the popular Silver Dollar Cafe.

Life changed for Christy Stephens on a January morning, when a car drove through the front door of her Collinsville restaurant – a place her family has run for 25 years.

In an instant, part of the roof collapsed, along with Stephens’ heart.

1/23/2017 Related Story: Car Plows Into Collinsville Cafe, Roof Collapses

“I thought that someone just broke the glass, but when I got here, a quarter of the building is gone, so I just stood out front and cried,” she said.

The person driving the car was having a medical emergency at the time.

Now, just over a month later, the Stephens family is trying to rebuild.

1/24/2017 Related Story: Owner Of Collinsville Cafe Determined To Keep Going After Building Collapse

"It's been awful actually, I mean, we have had lots of friends that have come and helped us at every point, but just cleaning the place to get back open," she said.

The town is hoping some of the struggles will end for Stephens and her family after Thursday night's fundraiser.

"They have always been very helpful to us when we came in and when we run out of something we could always count on them," Tony Perez said.

Perez owns El Jalapeno, another restaurant in town, and he supplied most of the food for the community fundraiser.

"We don't see anybody as competition, we are here to support this town. If this town does good we all do good," Perez said.

He said fundraisers like Thursday nights are just what you do for each other in Collinsville.

”Hopefully this will help them out and let them get a little bit of breathing room," Perez said.

Stephens said, “I don't even know what to say. It’s so overwhelming. Everyone is so generous and it makes me wanna cry."

The bar at Silver Dollar Cafe is still open for business. Stephens said the dining room is expected to open by the end of the summer.

A Go Fund Me page has also been set up for Stephens.