I invite you to take a seat and reflect on what “American Made” means. Travel north on historic Main Street in Buford, Georgia and visit Tannery Row. Across the street you will find the large bronze statue representing Buford’s Bona Allen saddlery past. The statue is titled “American Made” and depicts Hollywood horse, Trigger, being fitted by a master saddler, John Johnson, as western film legend Roy Rogers assists. The statue not only honors Buford’s past, but because the legacies of the men memorialized, it also powerfully predicted the rise of a new local legacy, Brightside Cafe, 20 years later.
Located within camera view of “American Made,” in the previous corner offices of the Bona Allen Collar facility, Brightside Cafe carries on statues family legacies of protecting community youth by providing training, education and employment for neurodiverse youth and adults with autism, downs syndrome, or physical challenges.
Roy Rogers was more than a western film star. He was a devoted husband to wife Dale Evans for 51 years. They were in 29 films together and successfully grew wealth and a diverse family. Inspired by a love for children of all kinds, they adopted nine children and sponsored 40 world-wide. Within that love, they experienced many losses as well, including the significant loss of their only biological child, a daughter named Robin with Downs Syndrome, at the tender age of two.
From this tragedy, Dale began to find ways to support children who were often removed from society’s view, like her daughter and children who had suffered from abuse and neglect. Foundations they began like the ARC and Happy Trails Children’s Foundation are still active today. The Rogers’s God-driven mission for children can be found in a story authored by Dale Evans Rogers called “Angel Unaware.”
Evans Rogers wrote that there was a place for everyone on earth and her daughter helped deliver that message from God. She created an analogy of many rooms on earth that can accommodate all- strong and weak- but all which serve the purpose of learning your mission for God. “There are many rooms, where we study and teach and get ready to move into Your big light room Up Here (Heaven)” Robin speaks to God.
As a balance for Rogers, master saddler and third generation Bona Allen worker, John Johnson and his wife also had a huge heart for protecting children in Buford. They too had one biological daughter and cared for 32 foster children. He was dedicated to Bona Allen for over 50 years and to his wife, Lillian, for 64.
It is the spirit of these men (as well as the infamous, well-mannered Trigger) that mark the historical presence of a new local business, Brightside Cafe, across the street. Quoted in an AJC article in 2005, the developer behind the fundraising for the statue, Don Arsenault said, “People will come from miles around, from all over the country to see these statues.” Today, I challenge you and your family to come see the statue and visit Brightside Cafe. Sip a latte and revel in the re-emergence of this historical location and how it is a “room” in which we can all learn something.
I invite you to learn about the community-focused mission of Brightside owners Jennifer Elinburg and Carrie Walton – training, employment, and ultimately uncovering the light within their employees and the Buford community at-large. A mission that providentially parallels that of little Robin Rogers as written by her mother, “they’re a lot stronger, since they got Our message (from God). There’s a new glory inside them and on everything all around them…the sun’s a lot brighter.” You will feel strength and sunshine after a visit to Brightside Cafe. After all, it is right there in the name and, coincidentally, embodied in the beautiful bronze statue out front and perhaps the choice of angel wing art inside? How very serendipitous, I think.
Words by Denise Mann
Special to the North Gwinnett Voice
