CARROLL, Ohio — A central Ohio coffee shop is using its platform to help locate missing people, launching an initiative it hopes will spread to other cafes.
Carroll Cup Coffee House, located at 75 E. Canal St. in Fairfield County, began serving coffee in November with sleeves featuring information and a photo of missing Columbus man Andrew “Andy” Chapman, who has been missing from the Hilltop area since 2006. Owner June Queen named the campaign “searchlight sleeves.”
“I felt like the sleeves on the coffee cups are a great opportunity to advertise,” Queen said. “So I came up with the idea, why not try to get the word out about our missing via the coffee cup sleeves?”
Queen said she often saw Chapman’s family advocating to bring him home on social media and in the news. She reached out to his sister, Aimee Chapman, to get permission before creating the sleeves.
“Aimee paid a personal visit to the shop,” Queen said. “It was great meeting her and having her blessing to move forward.”
In a Facebook post, Aimee Chapman called it a “delight” to meet Queen and said her family is “deeply grateful for her kindness.” Queen said she printed about 1,000 sleeves with Andy’s information, which have since run out. She is now seeking to feature a new missing person.
“I know with cases, there tends to be a little bit more active publicity on some than others,” Queen said. “So I’ve been trying to target those that have been going on for a while, like those colder cases, and maybe ones that the people in the community are not quite as aware of.”
Queen said she was inspired by the missing children once featured on milk cartons in her youth, and she has since become an advocate for missing persons by attending events and raising awareness online.
The goal of the searchlight sleeves, Queen said, is to increase the visibility of missing persons and generate new leads for law enforcement. She hopes other coffee shops will consider adopting the idea.
“There are many coffee shops around, the bigger chains and also local places like mine,” Queen said. “If this idea caught on and we had other coffee houses willing to do the same, we could basically be putting into the hands of our customers on a daily basis coffee with these informational sleeves about our local missing.”
Anyone interested in having a missing loved one featured on the sleeves at Carroll Cup Coffee House can contact Queen at [email protected].