When our Charlestown office opened 8 years ago it was decided to call our Café the M.A.D. Café which stood for ‘Make A Difference’ a term used in our recruitment for Foster Carers to help make a difference in a child’s life.
We recently changed the name of the cafe to 'Al’s Cafe' as a tribute to one of our long serving Staff members - Al, our trained therapy dog.
Al joined Allambi as an 8-week-old golden retriever puppy and joined Mark Branson’s household where he undertook extensive training as a therapy dog. Al was then placed in our disability and residential homes where he played an enormous role in calming young people and simply loving them to bits. He was extremely popular and well known and loved by all who came in contact with him.
For the next 8 years he served faithfully in several of our houses at times participating in violent and traumatic events. Finally, being diagnosed himself with Post Traumatic Stress the decision to retire him officially from the homes was made and he took up full time residence with Lyn and Peter Walsh on their property. Chasing rabbits and grandkids became his priority, living a relatively stress-free life.
However, he still reported for work each day at the Allambi office where he continued to have contact with our young people either in the Learning Centre or in the Café. One of his major tasks was to sit and listen to our young students read. He did this with great enthusiasm as he slept quietly listening to them read their favourite stories.
Finally, he took up residence in the Café each day greeting all and sundry lying in the sun at the Café entrance bringing a smile to all who entered. He was always a patient customer who enjoyed waiting his turn to be served and being hand fed twice a day by Anthea, chicken always his favourite.
There are a number of hilarious stories about our Al, his faithfulness, his patience, his love of people and his GREAT FEAR OF STORMS. He also enjoyed weekend respite with his favourite staff members, Anthea always won his heart and would often take him home with her. Unfortunately, Al passed away peacefully in his sleep at age 14 on 7 November 2019.
The Café is a great community place for staff to come in and relax, chat around the lunch table and joke with the Café staff. The Café is used not only to serve up delicious meals and snacks but also to train our young people and introduce them to the industry of 'hospitality'. Several of our young people have gone on to successfully achieve in the wider community. Training includes general service, order taking, healthy food, hygiene and completion of a coffee school with our supplier.
