Community Rallies Around Longtime Brownsburg Business, Rock Star Pizza
Photographer / Amy Payne
If you’ve ever been to Rock Star Pizza, you know Ron and Colby Mathews have never shied away from any opportunity to support their surrounding communities. For the better part of the last two decades, the Mathews have taken every opportunity possible to give back to schools and anyone struggling in the surrounding area. For better or worse, the beloved pizza parlor recently found themselves facing a struggle of their own. Their pizza oven died.
Suddenly, the Mathews found themselves on the opposite side of the giving arrangement, trying to find creative ways to restore a critical piece of equipment. It wasn’t comfortable, it wasn’t desirable. But after nearly two decades of pouring their hearts and souls into a community they loved, they found themselves on the receiving end of that same community, which wanted to pay them back for their kindness.
Upon investing more than $6,000 in a secondhand oven and finding it unusable, the Mathews were left with few options. It was time to toss the used version and buy new. But new industrial ovens can range anywhere from $30,000 to $70,000, an amount that she and her husband didn’t have available and couldn’t conceivably raise on their own. That’s when longtime community resident Diane Tedder decided it was time to pay back the small business owners with a healthy dose of return kindness.
Tedder was no stranger to Rock Star Pizza. Although the Mathews weren’t directly acquainted with her at the time, Tedder had long heard of the selfless help the owners generously bestowed on others. An avid follower of their Facebook group and Pay-It-Forward Board, Tedder felt it was time to repay the Mathews’ kindness. Despite some initial pushback, Tedder insisted, and she convinced the couple to let her start a GoFundMe to help them raise the needed capital for a new oven.
“You know, it was difficult for us to agree to the GoFundMe campaign at first,” Colby says. “It’s truly humbling to be faced with needing help and feeling guilty about asking for it. At first, I told her we couldn’t possibly accept that kind of help, but she insisted that it was time for our kind deeds to be repaid. How could I argue with that.”
And it was indeed difficult to argue with that. Over the years, the Mathews have showed up time and again for anyone needing help in Brownsburg and surrounding communities. There wasn’t a meal train that didn’t have the Mathews’ names on it. They’ve always felt inspired to help others, however far or near. If they saw a gap, they stepped up to fill it.
The Mathews have always particularly felt compelled to support local education. With two kids enrolled in their local schools, it was easy to see how much teachers contribute to the youth and surrounding communities. For more than a decade, Colby would drive donated pizzas to Arsenal Tech High School to help incentivize student performance. Then and many other times, Colby would also tap The Hayloft business owner Sarah Simon, who would throw in some cupcakes to sweeten the deal.
“We have always been supportive of our schools,” Colby says. “They don’t get nearly enough credit. I remember when the teachers marched Red for Ed and we gave every single person with a school ID a free item. I have a great appreciation and respect for teachers.”
The Mathews also want to see goodwill spread in their community. After an incident in the area where two boys were verbally attacked, involving racial comments, Colby and Ron opened up their store so the boys could have a safe haven for selling their candy. The town showed up, and the line wrapped around the corner.
“I know firsthand the heart of the people who live here. Brownsburg is a wonderful community and place to live,” she says.
Colby and Ron have always used Rock Star Pizza as a conduit to bring their community closer together. And if anyone was ready to prove to Colby just how wonderful the community was, it was Diane Tedder.
“A lot of people assume I was friends with the Mathews,” Tedder says. “Although I’d been in and around Rock Star Pizza, I didn’t know them. I have just always been moved by their generosity toward the community, and I thought it was time that they get to benefit from all the good they’ve done over the years.”
The GoFundMe campaign ended on Nov. 17, 2025, with more than $24,000 in funds. The community wasn’t going to let that be the end. From the moment Colby posted on their social accounts asking for grace and patience as they struggled with only a single oven, the community dropped in and started leaving checks, cash, kind letters and donations to help the family in their time of need.
“It was just really amazing to see this community show up for them,” Tedder says. “I think they were more shocked than anyone that others would so readily help them in their time of need. But I had no doubt that the community would be there for them.”
The oven arrived on Nov. 25, 2025, just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday to a crowd awaiting its arrival and the results of the pizza name contest. The winner took home gift certificates and bragging rights for a creative name.
The oven couldn’t have come at a better time. With the Christmas holiday right around the corner, the employees would have a brand-new oven to use for their yearly tradition. Per their request, employees open from 4-8 p.m. on Christmas Day. The Mathews buy the supplies, and whatever profits they make are theirs to take home.
“We aren’t just a business, we’re a family,” Colby adds. “That’s ultimately how they sold me on the GoFundMe. Diane asked me how I would be able to support our employees’ holiday tradition without an oven, and I just couldn’t accept that as a possibility. That’s how she got me.”
Thanks to the community’s generosity, the Mathews and their employees celebrated a very merry, pizza-filled Christmas.
To learn more about Rock Star Pizza, visit them on Facebook or at rockstarpizza.net.
