The local business was left devastated after a car drove through the store

HILLSBORO Ore. (KPTV) – A local business owner is still picking up the pieces after a Thanksgiving Day accident destroyed the facade of Jim’s Ice Cream Shop in Hillsboro.

“The wall is completely pushed in, there used to be windows here,” said Adrian Wakefield, owner of Jim’s Ice Cream, as she walked through the former front of her store. “A lot of our ceiling tiles and insulation and.” Things like that have fallen. It was truly one of the worst days.”

Wakefield has been in a holding pattern since Thanksgiving. More than four days after the vacation accident, she was finally able to file an insurance claim.

“Now that we’ve got the ball rolling, we’re going to move as quickly as possible, but it’s going to take a lot of time and we don’t have all the information about the vehicle that hit the deal,” Wakefield said.

There is currently no timeline for when they will be able to reopen. They must initiate police and insurance investigations, hire a contractor to evaluate the work to be done, and obtain permits from the city before they can even begin rebuilding.

“It was really devastating to see a truck in my building. “The whole wall, the whole end of the store is gone, there’s no other way to say it,” Wakefield said.

This business was an important part of Wakefield’s life.

“When I was a child, my sister became the manager of this store when I was 10. We worked for Jim when it was called Baskin Robins,” Wakefield said.

She started working there herself at the age of 16. Then, 10 years ago Sunday, it was renamed Jim’s Ice Cream and then she bought the business.

“This wasn’t how we planned our 10th anniversary,” Wakefield said. “I was hoping for a big Black Friday weekend, a small business Saturday, things like that to extend our celebrations over the weekend.”

After the crash, they were unable to turn on the power in time to save the ice cream in the store. So since she doesn’t have a product or a storefront, Wakefield said it’s the community’s support that has kept her going.

“Immediately people asked if they could come over and help clean up debris, which they were willing to put on their gloves and throw things in the trash.” Even though we can’t do that for bureaucratic, insurance and liability reasons, “The fact that people are willing to do this for a small business is huge,” Wakefield said.

Other small businesses also came to her aid. 185. Produce placed a tip jar in its store to raise money to get Wakefield and her employees through the holidays. In addition, the Bennett Urban Farm Store and other Christmas markets throughout the Wakefield metro have provided space to sell chocolate and other treats that were not damaged in the crash.

Her family has also set up a GoFundMe page to continue making payments to their employees during the holiday season.

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