As Congress talks, businesses try GoFundMe to survive COVID-19 – By Jim Saksa (Roll Call) / Dec 8 2020
Patrons’ contributions filling in for federal aid
After selling just three drinks on a Sunday in October, Patti Brett worried they might be her last.
For more than 40 years, Doobies Bar has been a communal living room for Philadelphia’s Grad Hospital neighborhood, a place to chat with friends and play board games over beers. Brett started working there before her mother bought it in 1978. Doobies’ meaning to the community is evident on its walls, lined with David Bowie memorabilia given to Brett, arguably the city’s biggest fan of the Thin White Duke.
But after outlasting the hospital that gave the neighborhood its name, Brett’s bar may now succumb to the coronavirus pandemic. With bills piling up, she turned to the crowdfunding site GoFundMe to solicit donations. “I’m asking for your help because I don’t know what else to do,” she wrote.
Within 12 hours, she hit her initial goal of $10,000, and the GoFundMe campaign has now raised more than $36,700, “which is absolutely going to get me through the winter,” Brett says.
Facing an avalanche of new coronavirus cases and renewed restrictions on indoor dining, desperate bar and restaurant owners like Brett are relying on the charity of patrons to survive.
CONTINUE > https://rollcall.com/2020/12/08/as-congress-talks-businesses-try-gofundme-to-survive-covid-19/
