Tehachapi News

Caffeine and dreams

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The proverbial coffee cup was overflowing last week for Golden Hills residents Mike Walters and Jackie Lawlor, who celebrated the grand opening of their second coffee house in Bakersfield, Dagny’s II Coffee House and Dream Center.

While Dagny’s I is already known for its unique, downtown atmosphere and hip clientele, The Dream Center at Dagny’s II is not just your average cuppa Joe.

Walters has partnered with the Network for Children, a division of the office of the Kern County Superintendent of Schools, to create a resource center for youth who have recently become emancipated from the county’s foster care system. While most young people are frothing like a double-caf-cappuccino to reach the magic age of majority — 18 — foster care kids rarely celebrate being cut loose from any means of financial support, and they are often lacking the core skills to compete in tight job and housing markets.

In addition to employment opportunities, the center offers information about higher education, transportation, vocational training and life-coaching.

So far, Walters said the partnership is working out “Superb. Better than I ever would have thought.”

“It’s caught on so well it’s amazing,” he said adding, “I get to teach them about the business world. The real world.”

“I want to run two separate businesses for the most part, but I want them to be interchangeable,” Walters, said. “We’ve got to have a consistent, great product and we’ve got to take care of our customers.”

Now that summer is over and Lawlor is back to her real world job as a counseling secretary at Jacobsen Middle School, Walters now runs their “Mom & Pop” inspired coffee houses with their two daughters, along with seven employees from the foster system, ages 18-24. Walters said that some of those employees have children of their own, and some are also taking care of younger siblings, like Taniya “Rose” Winston, 19, who cares for her two younger sisters. She was 12 when she entered the foster care system. When she’s not working, her job at the Dream Center makes it possible for her to attend Bakersfield College. She hopes to continue her education at Cal State Bakersfield.

“I don’t see these kids as being different. I’ve been working with kids long enough to know we all have different upbringings. It’s not any different working with these kids than it was when I worked with local kids at Albertsons in Tehachapi,” Walters said.

“We’re all individuals with our own family issues.”

Walters humbly hesitates to call himself a mentor, but he believes that through the Dream Center he can help impart job and people skills that will lead these particular  young people to successful independence. He said that nearly 30 years of corporate management experience has helped him to learn and appreciate the value of interacting with different personality types, allowing them to find different ways to achieve their own best results.

Mike’s upbringing as a self-professed “Army brat” might have something to do with his ability to relate to former foster kids, many of whom have moved from one foster home to another multiple times.

“I went to eight schools in seven years...or maybe it was seven schools in eight years,” he said. “Or something like that.”

In spite of the Army’s early influence, Walters and Lawlor lead anything but a regimented lifestyle, enjoying bi-monthly poker nights with friends and the lure of the open road as avid motorcycle and Karmann Ghia enthusiasts.

Jackie remains humble about her contributions to the couple’s two coffee houses, but she does boast of her baking skill, taking pride in her “yummy” oatmeal raisin and peanut butter cookies. She also enjoys making doggy biscuits from scratch, so K-9 customers who bring their caffeine seeking humans to Dagny’s downtown patio area can also enjoy a treat.

As an accomplished actress and member of Tehachapi Community Theater, Lawlor’s even managed to lure the conservatively inclined Walters into the performance realm, with supporting roles in War of the Worlds and Love Letters.

Delving into some coffee house improv, Walters answered what kind of baked good he believes would best characterize Lawlor:

“A fruit bar, because she’s a little nutty,” he said.

Deep, dark secrets came to light when Lawlor was asked what coffee drink would best characterize Walters:

“Well...he’s not really much of a coffee drinker...” she said momentarily disarmed.
Finally she decided, “He’s just a big smoothie!”

Not unlike his role model Ronald Reagan the one person he said he would most enjoy having coffee (or a smoothie) with, Walters prefers to downplay his acting experience and focus on more statesman-like qualities.

“I promised my employees I would never publicly embarrass them.”

Walters said his definition of success is taking care of yourself and your family and, “doing it right. Trying to do things morally and ethically. We all know what’s right and wrong. You’ve got to make the right choices.”

One of the most difficult choices he’s ever had to make was leaving Albertsons.

“Making the move from corporate life was scary as hell,” he said adding that now he’s glad he’s able to follow his own dream while helping young people achieve theirs, in spite of challenges.

“The kids who work for me they make the coffee house [successful],” he said.
While he doesn’t rule out the possibility of opening more Dagny’s, Walters said he’ll always want to cultivate the “Mom & Pop” feeling of knowing most of his customers.

“It’s just like Friends,” he said, likening his coffee houses to “your third place.” First is home, then work, then Dagny’s. Maybe Tehachapi will be next...?

To learn more about The Dream Center or other Kern County Network for Children programs visit: www.kern.org/