Local Charity Helps Raise Funds To Keep Vandalized Furniture Store Open
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A small town furniture store that was vandalized will stay open thanks to the help of strangers.
"I usually don't cry, but when I see all the help we've been getting it gets me very emotional," The Furniture Clinic owner Rick Elkins said.
Elkins' store in Madelia was vandalized earlier this week. Someone broke in, sawed pieces of furniture in half and poured paint on them.
Elkins, who is legally blind, opened the store last year to stay active in the community. He says the damage would cost him around $8,000 and he likely would not be able to keep the store going.
"Our whole thing is we just want to make things ten-percent better," Chive Minnesota co-founder Matt Meehan said. "We want to help the underdogs."
WCCO viewers told the non-profit organization Chive Minnesota about Elkins' misfortune. The organization set up a GoFundMe account to help raise enough money to keep The Furniture Clinic open.
"He gave us the okay and that's where it went," Meehan said.
If the Chive brand sounds familiar, you might not think of it as a charity organization. Their tagline, KCCO (Keep Calm and Chive On), is pop culture slang.
"It's just an entertainment website," Meehan said.
Meehan and his friends started the Chive Minnesota in 2014 to attract a different audience to charitable, local causes. They raised more than $30,000 last year for the family of fallen Mendota Heights Police Officer Scott Patrick.
"When they realize what we do, they get a lot more into it and more active in the community," Meehan said.
Less than 24 hours after the donation site launched for the furniture store, they surpassed the $8,000 goal. Elkins will get to keep his store.
"Just makes you feel so good to know the actions of a few bad are wiped away from the actions of so many good," Elkins said.
Click here to visit the store's GoFundMe page.
Madelia Police says this is not the first time vandalism occurred in this building. A similar break-in happened almost two years to the day of The Furniture Clinic incident when the building housed a vet clinic.
Investigators say the forced entry in both cases was made in the same way.
Anyone with information on these break-ins is urged to call Madelia Police at 507-642-3246. A $500 reward is being offered for info that leads to an arrest and conviction.