Jared and Shannon Wilke have spent a lot of Pacifica nights at the Longboard Margarita Bar. Earlier this month, a GoFundMe fundraiser for the bar popped up on their social media, and so the Half Moon Bay couple decided to chip in.
“The Longboard Margarita Bar is a great spot for live music,” said Jared Wilke. “For Coastsiders who want to see live music, you have to go to San Francisco or Oakland a lot of times — so it’s nice to have a good spot close by.
“We had extra money, so we said, ‘We can do that,’” added Wilke, referring to the $150 donation that he and his wife made to the Longboard Margarita Bar through GoFundMe. In the past, the popular crowdfunding platform headquartered in Redwood City has often been used to pool donations both big and small in cases of natural disasters, violence, illnesses and accidents. But more and more, small business owners like Kimberly Lerohl of the Longboard Margarita Bar have been turning to GoFundMe in their time of need.
“Over the last year, our landlord has raised our rent astronomically,” Lerohl told prospective donors on her GoFundMe page. “Vendor prices, supplies (and) utilities have all risen in cost. The torrential storms this winter have kept people at home. Needless to say, we have gotten behind, and our landlord wants to terminate our lease even though we have been paying them pretty much every penny that we’ve been bringing in.”
Jalen Drummond, GoFundMe’s director of public affairs, said that Lerohl is not alone in seeking out community support in this way.
“Thousands of small businesses, ranging from comic-book shops to drive-in movie theaters, have created GoFundMe campaigns for a wide variety of imminent financial needs,” said Drummond.
In less than three weeks, Lerohl has come within $2,800 of her $25,000 goal. Donations to her GoFundMe campaign range from $5 to $10,000, while contributions of $150 or less seem to be the norm.
“At first, I felt almost a little ashamed to use GoFundMe to ask for help,” said Lerohl. “But, in the long run, I’m really happy that I did because it gave a lot of people that love our venue the opportunity to help us out.”
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.