Alum Emelie Pfaff Meets Mr. President
The morning rush had just ended when a professionally-dressed man and woman entered Parkville Coffee. They brought news that the employees just didn’t believe.
UMKC alumna Emelie Pfaff, an employee of the coffee shop, thought her manager was kidding when she said President Barack Obama was coming to visit.
“We must have had looks of disbelief because she quickly said ‘No joke.’ She then informed us that we could call our families if they lived close, and we frantically called the owner of the shop and our roaster and told them to come quick,” said Pfaff. “Fifteen or so minutes later the secret service was at our shop patting everyone down, and bomb dogs were sniffing around and all the traffic to downtown Parkville was stopped.”
Since Parkville is a small town, word spread quickly that the President of the United States was coming. Shortly, more than 20 were in the shop, which by then was filled with nervous energy. Once President Barack Obama entered, there was total silence.
“When the President walked in, everyone stopped talking,” said Pfaff. “He wanted something cold because it was warm outside and not coffee because he had already had caffeine. So he settled for a small, slightly sweetened black ice tea,” said Pfaff.
After offering to buy for anyone – and actually paying for a few who accepted his offer – Obama needed a snack, and Pfaff suggested their oatmeal raisin cookies. He ordered two of those and two chocolate chunk cookies.
“I rang up his order and took his money,” Pfaff said excitedly.
She described the experience as “completely surreal when arguably the most powerful man in the world came into the locally owned- and operated-shop.”
Pfaff, who graduated with a music performance degree from the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance, was asked how she would have felt to play her French horn for Mr. Obama. She said she would have been incredibly nervous because of all the media attention the performance would have received.
One of her coworkers asked if he could take a photo, and the President agreed as he walked around the counter.
“It was like asking someone to take a group photo of you and your friends as at a restaurant.”
Business at Parkville Coffee has picked up because of Obama’s visit – people ordering lattes and muffins and reliving the moments when the President visited Parkville. Pfaff has a memory that will last her a lifetime.
“My lasting memory from this whole experience will be the feeling of just pure excitement I had for the rest of the day,” said Pfaff. “This experience also reminded me that he is no different from you and me. He’s just a fellow human being with one heck of a job. And I’ll always have the picture, of course.”
Pfaff graduated in May with a bachelor of music in French Horn Performance and a bachelor of music in Music Theory. She is working for a year to save some money, gig, “practice, practice, practice” and travel. Pfaff plans to audition for graduate school in Europe, probably Sweden, where her family currently resides.
|Wandra Brooks Green, Division of Strategic Marketing and Communications