DreamHaven Books & Comics, Minneapolis, Minn., which was badly damaged in the first protests after the murder of George Floyd, has created a crowdsourcing campaign, "DreamHaven Restoration," that has raised more than $17,000 toward its goal of $25,000.
Owner Greg Ketter wrote on the page, in part, that during the initial protests, "Some individuals took advantage of a chaotic situation to do serious damage to hundreds of businesses in the area.
"Early Saturday morning, May 30th a group of young males drove up, smashed the front door, entered the store and ransacked the building. They broke glass, toppled shelves, threw things around and took what they could carry before neighbors frightened them off. They tried to start a fire but luckily they were incompetent arsonists. The fire went out.
"So many lost so much. To be honest, our need is smaller than many, but there is still need. Insurance will cover some of the costs, many of which we're not even aware of yet. We're replacing what was lost, repairing what was broken. We'll be closed for a short time yet, but things are moving quickly and I hope we can re-open very soon."
Ketter noted, "I'm a very proud person (I've turned into my father) and asking for help is not something I'm comfortable doing. People have already shown me incredible kindnesses and offers of help and I can't tell you how much that means to me. The messages of love and concern, of how much my store has meant to people, have touched me tremendously. I am truly blessed and I thank you all. Please be safe."
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The Official Help Save Uncle Hugo's Fund has raised some $115,000 of its goal of $500,000, to help build Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore and Uncle Edgar's Mystery Bookstore, which were burned to the ground in the early days of the Minneapolis protests against the murder of George Floyd.
Over the weekend, Sam Blyly-Strauss had an update on the efforts of his father, Don Blyly, to see about insurance help for the store. He wrote in part: "It looks like he should be paid for approximately 90% of the wholesale value of the inventory within 30 days, but the building is a bit more complicated. He's still not sure if he's going to try to rebuild on the same site, buy or rent a different building and relocate, or switch to a mail-order business from his home." An insurance adjuster will provide "more numbers regarding how much of the rebuild cost will be covered, and he'll need to crunch more numbers on how much a rebuild would cost with some upgrades he had in mind (rooftop solar panels, higher ceilings in the basement, larger basement, etc.) before he'll be able to decide which route he'll be going."
Blyly-Strauss added that in the next week his father plans to start selling Uncle Hugo's and Uncle Edgar's T-shirts and sweatshirts that were ordered before the fire and arrived at his house this week.