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In August, EDWINS will graduate its second
class of students, following on the heels
of the first class of 23 who graduated this
past April. During their education, students
come to the restaurant three times a week
and learn everything about the restaurant
business. Whether it’s on the floor or
in EDWINS’ tiny basement classroom,
they are taken through the rigors of food
safety, culinary math, serving, bartending,
cooking, hosting, and more.
It’s not an easy task for Chrostowski,
for his paid staff, or for his students, but
it doesn’t make it not worth doing. A
reminder is painted on the kitchen staircase
that leads to the basement classroom. It
reads: Today, we will win. We’ll study our
mistakes and become stronger. We will win,
each day, we will win.
If that sounds like the stuff of
motivational speeches, it’s not. “Someone
believed in me and said, ‘Hey, you can do
this’, ” Chrostowski says of his own path.
“Having that support took me in a whole
new direction in life. At some point, I felt
like I was on borrowed time, that I should
be dead or in prison. No one does this
work without being blessed. It needs to
be given back.”
40 SHAKERONLINE.COM | SUMMER 2014
Josh Skoutelas, a 31-year-old
Pittsburgh native who will graduate from
EDWINS in August, recently told a group
of Onaway Elementary School fourth
graders who visited the restaurant on a
field trip that he was “just like all of you,”
growing up in a middle class home and
playing hockey, until he got mixed up with
the wrong crowd and ended up in prison.
“Before this program, I was struggling
with finding myself,” he told the Onaway
kids. “Now I have a second chance. I can
wake up every day now and know that I
have something to do. I have learned so
much,” he told the students.
EDWINS has also caught the eye of
Shaker residents who have lined up to help
Chrostowski and his students. Chris Cole,
a consultant and development manager at
Deloitte, learned of Chrostowski’s mission
COURTESY OF EDWINS
COURTESY OF EDWINS
in 2013 while attending the TEDxCLE
conference. Chrostowski spoke about
EDWINS at the conference and Cole
offered to help him organize his volunteer
human resources.
Cole’s wife, Anne, and their two
children also got involved with EDWINS,
providing much needed time and elbow
grease painting and cleaning the restaurant
before it opened. Today, Chris sits on
EDWINS’ board of directors. “We meet
every two months and we help him
manage the organization,” Cole explains.
“If he wants to try something new or if he
needs another perspective on things, we
give him that.”