Our Program on Tuesday, August 15th was David Brainerd’s Bio. David started by giving us his background and noted that his namesake is the 
David Brainerd that founded the City of Brainer d Minnesota! He is originally from Iowa and has been in the restaurant business starting in 1981 in Fort Meyers, Florida. He and his wife Tammy, son Max and daughter Lily (now 13 years old) moved to Minnesota in 2010. Important in their move was to find a school system that could meet the needs of their son who is brilliant and has Asperger’s Syndrome. Florida’s educational systems was not meeting his needs and in relocating here they scouted out Minnetonka, Mound and Delano and found Delano’s programs perfectly meet his needs and gave him the opportunity to excel in school and socially. He also shared that his wife Candice is a Cancer Survivor and works with McCormic’s Restaurant in Wayzata for 10 years.
David Brainerd that founded the City of Brainer d Minnesota! He is originally from Iowa and has been in the restaurant business starting in 1981 in Fort Meyers, Florida. He and his wife Tammy, son Max and daughter Lily (now 13 years old) moved to Minnesota in 2010. Important in their move was to find a school system that could meet the needs of their son who is brilliant and has Asperger’s Syndrome. Florida’s educational systems was not meeting his needs and in relocating here they scouted out Minnetonka, Mound and Delano and found Delano’s programs perfectly meet his needs and gave him the opportunity to excel in school and socially. He also shared that his wife Candice is a Cancer Survivor and works with McCormic’s Restaurant in Wayzata for 10 years. How David came to Minnesota was very interesting. A buddy of his had introduced him to Mark at the Coalition Restaurant and he interviewed and started his job as Manager – Waiter and Bartender the very next day! Then five years ago he was promoted to General Manager. He talked about the challenges that the pandemic caused their business and how they coped to survive it. Coalition had a big tent set up with 4x6 foot plastic sheets to separate tables and instituted take out at Red Sauce Rebellion to stay financially afloat. The added expense individual sanitation packets that had a limited shelf live was expensive and finding workers was extremely difficult but they survived! He noted that he really believes in the Rotarian value statements and they instituted a Coalition code of value that employees are to embrace and follow when dealing with their customers and it works. David is very proud of Coalition’s clean environment with good workers and finds it to be a nurturing environment where everyone is friendly and interacts well with him and each other. The restaurant prides itself as being community based and tries to buy all its foods and supplies locally when possible.