Cafe donates turnover percentage to St John

Sonita Sey and Phearin Keat, owners of Cactus Creme cafe, celebrate the business's birthday with a generous donation to St John Whanganui. Photo / Paul Brooks

Cactus Creme cafe in Victoria Avenue celebrates a four-year anniversary this week with a generous contribution to the ambulance service.

Husband and wife owners Phearin Keat - known as Richard - and Sonita Sey will donate 10 per cent of the cafe's takings from the first week of December to St John Whanganui.

"We want to do something a little bit different from the other [previous] three years," says Richard. "We always do something special," he says.

Normally they look at discounts or vouchers for customers, but this year they want to acknowledge St John and the ambulance service they provide for all Whanganui people.

"So we came up with the idea to give 10 per cent of a week's turnover to St John."

It has been four years since the cafe, previously on the other side of the street in a row of buildings since demolished, reopened in the premises in front of the Farmers car park. That was when Richard and Sonita began as owners of Cactus Creme.

"We are pretty busy, so that's why we thought of doing something for the community," says Richard.

He says in-store specials only benefit customers.

"If we do something for the community, everybody gets it.

"We will calculate our turnover for the week of November 29 to December 5 and give 10 per cent to St John."

He says they'll give it a go this year and maybe see what happens next year. Richard and Sonita have told St John of their plan.

"They are really impressed with what we are doing," says Richard.

It helps that a lot of the St John staff patronise Cactus Creme anyway, stopping by for breakfast or ordering a takeaway lunch.

Sonita says an ambulance has always been quick to the scene when a customer has had a fall or needs medical attention.

"We have a lot of elderly regular customers," says Richard, so helping St John could be helping them in an indirect way.

Richard and Sonita have a reputation for their generosity to local charities.