Hi Kossacks,
My name is Tom and I'm a long-time lurker, and in desperate need of help for my family.
Me, my wife Rhea, and our pup Benny, live in Woodstock, NY. Rhea ran our small gift shop (Woodstock Reveries) near the village green for 4 years with steadily increasing sales, until a new landlord refused to renew our lease (he was converting to an AirBnB). We found a house to rent nearby, but have had no storefront since December of 2017. We've tried to survive on part-time work and online sales, but now our finances are extremely tight. We have finally gotten approval to convert our front porch into a small shop, but we desperately need help to get through the next few weeks.
Our current landlord wants a substantial deposit on the storefront and the rest of our deposit on the house in order to renew our lease for next year, and as of October 1 we now need money towards a cracked tooth for our Benny.
We need the remaining $2500 of our deposit of $4,500 by October 14th. We’ve paid an initial $2000 with the help of donors and shoppers in September, so we set our current GoFundMe goal at $2850 to also help Benny with his tooth.
Our GoFundMe is here.
If you’d like to shop, our store site is here. We sell handmade and cruelty-free jewelry and designer bags and totes, as well as beautiful crystals. A portion of our sales goes to animal rescues and sanctuaries every month — this month we are helping Arthur’s Acres Animal Sanctuary!
We opened our front porch as a store on the 22nd of September, the store’s 5th anniversary! Traffic has been slow but we hope to see more people as word gets out and the leaves change colors.
Any additional donations or purchases will be a huge help to us! We have regular customers who miss visiting our physical store, especially in autumn, and for holiday shopping.
All money from donations or sales will go directly to our deposit (so we can stay in our home/store) and to making the store the best it can be. It would mean so much to us to have a little control over our lives again!
Thank you in advance for anything you can do. It will change our lives for the better!
Thank you from Rhea, Tom, and Benny
UPDATE: $1739 to go!! Over $1100 in donations and sales raised on Thursday! Thank you!