DUNCAN – As a Duncan city councilmember, mother of two toddlers, businesswoman and community volunteer, Lindsay Hayes is as busy as a person can be.
Yet, she smiles and laughs as she talks about her love for everything she does.
Hayes is now serving her second term on the city council after being unopposed in the latest political filings. It’s an endeavor she never expected to take on until approached by constituents in her ward.
“It’s been really good,” she said. “When I was first elected, it was right before COVID so things were different than I thought they would be. We have a great team, and we work well together. We involved ourselves in the community with Viridian Coffee so being part of the community (as a council member) hasn’t been that different.”
Hayes is co-owner of Viridian Coffee, which has a location in Duncan, two in Lawton and another in Chickasha. Hayes and her husband, Shay, opened the Duncan drive-thru in 2016. Hayes and her husband are working on opening three more Viridian Coffee locations in Cache, Elgin and south Oklahoma City.
As Hayes tells the story, she and her husband started roasting coffee beans in the fall of 2015 and sold their first bag of coffee beans to someone other than family and friends in January 2016. The couple opened their Duncan location after Black Friday 2016.
“It’s been quite a ride,” she said. “At first, it was Shay and me. Now we have almost 90 team members. It’s so fun to see the dream come alive. We have a community inside and outside of the company. We’ve stayed busy as everything keeps rolling along.”
The couple’s goal is to have 20 coffeehouses during the next seven years and 300 by 2037.
Busy is a common theme for Hayes who is mother to 3-year-old Teddy, 2-year-old Honour.
“They literally are like twins. I love being in their lives,” she said.
When Hayes isn’t serving on the city council, working at Viridian or mothering her two children, she also finds time to support the Charis Center and the Duncan Humane Society.
The Charis Center is a Duncan facility that helps young pregnant women discover the options they have for their baby.
“I’m a huge supporter,” Hayes said. “They really serve and love these women and men, too.”
One of the options is adoption, which Hayes and her husband experienced when they adopted their son Teddy two years after meeting Charis Center’s executive director Kimberla Treat at a farmer’s market where Viridian Coffee was selling its product.
“We were opening the Lawton store when the adoption occurred,” Hayes recalled. “We found out at 7 a.m. and I had him (Teddy) in my arms at 5 p.m. We really weren’t prepared because it happened so fast. So, we contacted Kimberla, and she set us up with a car seat so we could bring him home and other things we needed for those first few days. They (Charis Center) are about helping people and we loved what she (Treat) was doing.”
Community involvement is critical to Hayes as she and Shay push into different markets with their Viridian brand.
“We’re building community and culture with one great cup of coffee,” she said.