DETROIT (WWJ) -- If you’re a chocolate lover living in the Metro Detroit area, there’s a very good chance you’ve heard of Bon Bon Bon.
The chocolate company first opened in Hamtramck in 2014, and over the past decade, has developed into one of Detroit’s most beloved and acclaimed homegrown businesses — thanks to founder and head chocolatier, Alexandra Clark, and her team of “Babes Babes Babes.”
But without Clark's unfortunate involvement in a traumatic car accident that happened in Chicago in 2009, and an ensuing legal settlement, Bon Bon Bon may have never gotten off the ground.
On a new episode of The Daily J podcast, Alex Clark told WWJ’s Zach Clark and Annie Scaramuzzino how that incident changed her life forever — and what has recently caused her to reach back into those painful memories to gain some closure for herself, and to find four people who helped her that day.
The accident took place on May 19, 2009, when a black SUV ran a red light on Clark Street and Cermack Road in Chicago, and struck a taxi inside which Clark was a passenger.
At the time, Clark was just 21-years-old, and was in Chicago attending the Sweets & Snacks Expo at the McCormick Place convention center. She was in the early days of working towards her goal of someday owning a chocolate business — a dream born in her youth and solidified during a study abroad program she embarked on as a student at Michigan State University.
Clark was seriously injured in the crash, which resulted in a head injury, knocked out teeth, and the need for maxillofacial surgery.
Eventually, Clark received a legal settlement of $32,000, and used that money to open the first Bon Bon Bon shop “in the back room of a Coney Island across the street from her best friendʼs grandpaʼs house” in Hamtramck.
Since that time, Clark and her team have gone on to open locations in Detroit’s Midtown neighborhood and Parker’s Alley, as well as in Ferndale and Ann Arbor. Clark has been featured in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list, among other major publications, and Bon Bon Bon has become renowned for its high-quality products, its creative approach to the chocolate business, and its dedication to making responsibly and locally-sourced goods.
But Clark insists that much of this would not have been possible if not for the four people who rushed in to help her the day of the crash nearly 15 years ago — two bystanders (a man and woman) who were near Clark and Cermack, and two male EMTs who later arrived at the scene.
In a post shared to the Bon Bon Bon Instagram page on Feb. 28, Clark put out a call to action to try to find those four people, having thought about doing so many times throughout the years, in the hopes that she can thank them and “send them (a lot of) chocolate.”
SEE BELOW FOR THE FULL DESCRIPTIONS OF THE FOUR HELPERS
“I think about them like they’re angels,” Clark said on The Daily J podcast. “I think of them often in meeting strangers and it puts me at peace in the world to have — especially the two that came running to the car — that there are people in the world that when something goes terribly wrong, and people are not okay, there's people that go running towards those situations, and not even people that are trained to go running towards those situations.”
When it comes to wrapping her mind around the idea that the settlement from the accident led to the eventual success of Bon Bon Bon, Clark says she still struggles with the duality, and often refers to that $32,000 as her “bloody money.”
“I still wish that it had never happened, and the only times that I can convince myself otherwise is when I think of the customers I've met, and vendors I've met, and employees that I work with now, that I probably wouldn't have,” Clark said.
“I would have given anything to have it [go] differently, but this is the way that it has gone,” she continued. “I'm proud of the people that I've gotten to do all of that with, and I'm grateful for them and I think that I would be a different person otherwise … I realized that the reality of it and the result of it is actually something really positive, despite the event itself being something really scary.”
WWJ Newsradio 950 and The Daily J are teaming up with our sister station WBBM in Chicago and their daily news podcast, Looped In: Chicago, to try to help Alex Clark track down these four people that rushed to help following the crash in 2009.
Below are Alex’s descriptions of the two pairs of people, courtesy of the Bon Bon Bon Instagram page. She asks that anyone with information on these good Samaritans send an email with the subject “Chicago Taxi Accident” to AlexC@bonbonbon.com.
PAIR 1: Felt late 30s/40s/early 50s max in 2009. Forgive the spotty description, I was in shock. They are a man and a woman — I remember a look on the woman’s face but can’t describe her overall appearance other than that they both seemed of average build and light complexion. If I had to guess she was blonde-ish but don’t trust me. I kind of associate the other guy with George Stephanopoulos and I don’t know why. She looked horrified when she saw me and so I wonder if/hope that she told someone about her day that day who might be reading this. I remember not being certain if or how they knew each other before they helped me but wondering if they worked in an office together which made me think they may have worked nearby? One ran to Dunkin Donuts or they already had it but it seemed like they had a lot of napkins and just ice in a cup. They provided very basic care until EMS came. They acted almost like they were my parents as I left the scene, they stayed and watched me get taken away and said goodbye and it wasn’t until I arrived at the hospital and the EMS guys were like “lets grab your stuff” that I even realized I had stuff/had forgotten my stuff in the cab. Except for I didn’t forget my stuff in the cab because “pair 1” had packed up my bags and all of my chocolate samples (they neatly packed up everything of mine except for a single tooth… I told you I owe them chocolate) and made sure it was all sent with me. I never saw them again.
PAIR 2: Two EMS Guys. Felt late 20s to 30s-ish in 2009 — first one may be slightly older. Wings fans in Chicago (this should narrow it down quite a bit. Maybe entirely?). They were the first EMS to the scene and interacted with pair one, deciding I was going first because I had a head injury. The first guy was more intense and maybe older but still kind and calm. I think he had darker or more hair (less buzzed?). There was a moment he explained to me that they were putting in some sort of iv access more comfortable for longer term access and it felt like he was actually giving me a knowing soft intro to the fact that I was not leaving a hospital right away. His general demeanorbut especially this capacity to say one thing but actually tell someone something else entirely felt familiar and makes/made me feel like he was born and raised in the Midwest. The other was a veteran who was shot in action while serving and who also fell down the stairs at some point while not serving (I think he said after?) and broke his jaw. He described the later as more painful (even though he had been drinking) and thus was super, super sympathetic to the point of seeming in pain himself at witnessing my condition. Vivacious big heart-ed type. They rushed me to the first hospital and I think they also transported me to the specialist hospital once I was stable. They even checked in later and had bought me a treat when they stopped for coffee later in their shift hoping that I had been given the all clear to eat. I had not so instead they teased me that (not verbatim) “in that case, you snooze you lose”. My mom showed up, they left and I never saw them again.