A donation page for employees of the affected businesses from the West Union St. fire on Sunday has taken off.
A donation page for employees of the damaged businesses from the West Union St. fire has already made more than $12,200 in less than 24 hours and funds are growing rapidly.
Five Athens’ businesses — The Union, Jackie O's, Kismet, Smoke Zone Smoke Shop and Jack Neal Florist — were damaged as a result of a fire that raged for several hours on Sunday.
The GoFundMe page, which has garnered donations from more than 200 people in 19 hours, was created by Pete Shooner, assistant director of communications in the Russ College, and his wife Bailey Wagner, growth coordinator for Third Sun Solar in Athens.
“Our goal is to raise as much money as possible to help the employees of these businesses mitigate their lost wages while repairs are made,” Shooner said on the GoFundMe page.
The page also says that collected funds will be equally divided among workers from the businesses. Shooner is unsure of the number of employees who have been affected.
The page’s original goal of $10,000 was changed to $20,000 after Shooner saw how successful the campaign had become.
“The university is reaching out in a huge way and the Ohio University community in a specific way to help the students but … that left the employees from these business who likely aren't going to recuperate any lost wages,” he said.
The Athens Area Chamber of Commerce made one of the largest donations — with a sum of $2,000.
Alli Maloney, public relations and social media manager for Jackie O's, said that a group of Union Street business owners plan to endorse Shooner's GoFundMe Campaign after an invite-only meeting titled United Union happening Monday evening.
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