Traverse City burger shop sells 3,000 meals, raises funds for rival owner

More than 3,000 burgers sold in a single day at Oakwood Proper Burgers, far beyond the 1,000-meal goal the Traverse City shop set to help a competing restaurateur battling cancer.

Oakwood’s “1,000 Burger Challenge for Tim” turned the East Eighth Street restaurant into a fundraising engine on Saturday, April 11, with all proceeds from burger sales and qualifying gift-card purchases pledged to Bergstrom’s Burgers owner Tim Bergstrom and his family. Oakwood owners Leslie Bilbey and Josh Gray organized the effort, which was scheduled to run from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. at 1108 E. 8th Street.

The response was immediate and sustained. Oakwood said the restaurant ultimately moved more than 3,000 burgers, more than three times the original target, as neighbors lined up to help a business owner many in town already knew. The shop also planned for a second grill, and, if weather allowed, outdoor seating and bar space to keep pace with demand. The scale of the turnout showed how quickly a local cause can mobilize diners in Grand Traverse County when the beneficiary is a familiar face.

The fundraiser came as Tim Bergstrom has been undergoing intensive treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Kathy Bergstrom said on the family’s GoFundMe page that Tim had recently been diagnosed and was receiving care at the U of M Cancer Center. Bergstrom had mostly been at home during chemotherapy, and the family’s appeal drew support from a community that has watched his illness unfold over the past year.

Oakwood described the event as a show of “industry solidarity,” and that sentiment fit a restaurant scene where competition and cooperation often overlap. Bergstrom’s Burgers, at 905 U.S.-31 South, and Oakwood Proper Burgers, just off East Eighth Street, sit in the same Traverse City market, yet Sunday’s message was less about rivalry than resilience. Bilbey and Gray framed the effort around Bergstrom not only as a fellow business owner, but as a husband, father and provider whose illness has rippled through his family and staff.

The support also reflected Bergstrom’s own record of community giving. During his cancer battle, he had previously hosted a free Christmas meal for the community, and Bergstrom’s Burgers staff had earlier prepared Thanksgiving meals for unhoused people at Safe Harbor. That history helped explain why a burger challenge on East Eighth Street drew such a strong local response, and why one of Traverse City’s smallest shops ended up raising a major lifeline for one of its own.