Anonymous donors serve up kindness at town cafe
A CAFE in Bridgend has recently had a handful of anonymous donations worth thousands of pounds.
One person has just donated a sum of £4,420 to gaming cafe The Geek Retreat on a GoFundMe page which was originally raising money to install a disabled toilet.
But this is not the first time something like this has happened to the business. Just four months ago man walked into the shop and told them that he’d like to remain anonymous but give them £5,000.
Around the same time a woman also donated more than £1,000 to them. The venue has a mission to bring lots of different passions into one place and provide a space in communities where everyone can belong.
Their branch in Bridgend is located in Caroline Street and it has clearly made an impact since it arrived.
Geek Retreat manager Allyn Jones said: “I don’t know who these people are, especially not the person who just donated £4,000 on the fundraiser. I met the man who gave us £5,000 once but didn’t know him at all.
“I said: ‘I can’t possibly accept this’ but he was very set on it and even left it in writing that he wanted nothing in return. And one of the things he said to me was just that he liked me when he met me.
“I hadn’t been expecting him to say that. I’m quite an odd guy - I don’t really like any of this sort of stuff. I just wanted to do something for the community. I’m standing here right now in tracksuit bottoms and trainers.
“I’m not a businessman. I run the shop because I love it and I needed to do something where I could enjoy the company of other people rather than just living to work every day so it’s great that people care about us.
“The money goes straight into the cafe so we can improve the facilities and people can keep making the most of the space. I’m not showing up in a
Porsche or anything like that.
“Someone actually came in today and offered me a job paying over £30,000 a year but I said no. I don’t make that kind of money now but I don’t want to do that - I want to do this.”
Considering why they are so important to people Allyn said: “It’s about escapism. People have busy lives and you come to our shop, we’ve got all different types of games, and they sit down and escape.
“There’s this one man that comes in who’s got massive arms and is all muscly and you see him there painting this little figure. Then there are these techy people who make robots and someone who’s got a YouTube channel who comes in who is fantastic.
“It’s just crazy stuff down here, it really is, and geek culture is 100% becoming more accepted now and it’s people come from all over Wales to come here now - it’s mad. “We’re talking to Business Wales now to try and get funding to expand on stock. Because when we expand on stock it is really mad.”
And despite turning down a different job which pays more Allyn has never looked back. He said: “I had a mental breakdown and decided I didn’t want to have a meaningless life. I thought: ‘What can I do that’s going to make me feel better?’ The answer to that was run a business and be around other people.”
At Allyn’s branch he has found that having the cafe there has been invaluable in bringing people together with the main focus being on helping people with social anxiety and depression to get out of the house and socialise. They work closely with the LGBTQ+ community in Bridgend with the aim of making sure everyone in the area feels welcome.
Allyn said: “It’s amazing that I’ll see some people coming in here on their own for the first time and then after a while they’ll come in and have a social group where they are all talking to each other. That really makes it worth it.”