[SoDu We Like Local News] GoFundMe Launched to Support Some Chapel Hill Small Businesses

I’ve known Johnny and Catherine Mariakakis since I joined St. Barbara Greek Orthodox Church in South Durham back in 2011. Served with Johnny on the Parish Council for a couple of years, worked with him on the maintenance and groundskeeping committee, and helped where I could when he was ringmaster for the annual Greek Festival.

So, when I got word that his family business – Mariakakis Fine Food and Wine on Fordham Boulevard in Chapel Hill – got swamped by the deluge from Tropical Depression Chantal, I offered to help by setting up a GoFundMe page.

It didn’t surprise me much that Johnny insisted that any fundraiser not simply be about his business. He also wants to support the tenants whose own livelihoods are at stake after this disaster.

Give to this GoFundMe and you’re helping the Mariakakis family, but you’re also helping Army vet Chris Arnet and his podcast studio, and fiber arts expert Mary Stowe at Yarns Etc., Bert Johnson’s Signs Now and Occasions Engraving, Zartiques Rugs owned by Reza Zarea, The Catering Company of Chapel Hill run by Luke Armitrage and J.W. Walton, and The Shoe Repair – an unassuming shop owned by Cinderella Riggsbee, 80, who’s the last shoe and luggage repair expert in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area.

If you can’t contribute, I sure hope you can help spread the word.

And if you know of other small businesses in the area trying to recover some of their losses with fundraising pages, please let me know so I can help get the word out.