If you’ve ever wandered around Fairfax Shopping Center, you may have noticed Cameron’s Chocolates, marked by its bright pink sign and trademark heart logo. Interestingly enough, the store was co-founded by a Marshall alumni.
Besides offering goodies like frozen yogurt, an array of beverages and, of course, chocolates, the store offers something even sweeter to the community. Their mission? To “provide the freshest and finest chocolate products while offering meaningful employment to adults with intellectual disabilities,” according to their official website.
Cameron Graham, after whom the shop is named, graduated from Marshall’s Davis Center two years ago. The Davis Center teaches students with disabilities the skills they need to be able to work and live independently in society.
Graham spent her last two years at the Davis center in the culinary arts program. There, she learned essential skills for cooking, like how to follow a recipe from start to finish, and how to maintain a clean kitchen. Under the instruction and guidance of her teacher Becky McDermott, “Cameron really blossomed” Cameron’s mother Ellen Graham said.
According to her mother, Cameron’s experiences at the Davis Center, where she mastered the art of baking, helped to shape the career path she currently follows.
“It was this love of cooking that led us to Cameron’s Coffee and Chocolates,” Ellen Graham said.
Cameron is the face of the Graham’s effort, because she embodies everything that having a job has done for her. Cameron enjoys working with her fellow employees whom she calls her friends, and loves to interact with customers that come through the shop.
McDermott is happy that the love she has for cooking and food has spread to one of her students, and that “[Cameron’s] family was loving and resourceful enough to provide an incredible work environment for her.”
Ellen Graham says that the shop is a fun place to work for her employees.
“No two days in the shop are the same,” she said.
Cameron’s Chocolates has done what it has set out to do. It provides delicious chocolate treats while providing a safe and enjoyable work environment for those with intellectual disabilities. The shop has also created an incredible sense of community. Next time I’m in Fairfax Shopping Center, or my best friends and I are looking for a good place to talk and eat chocolate, I will definitely be going to Cameron’s Chocolates.