The employees of the historic Davis Theater and the local staple Carbon Arc Bar & Board have suddenly become unemployed and are doing everything we can to support each other.  

We love serving our community 365 days a year and are heartsick over the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic is having on not just our neighborhood, our city, and our country, but the entire world.

As employees of a small business, we are not secure and looking for new ways to support ourselves. We cannot do our work remotely. Previous to the business' closure, our team was already unsure about our income due to Hollywood releases being pushed back and private events (which we host multiple times a week) being postponed or cancelled. While these are necessary steps in our collective safety, this also put us on shaky ground financially.

100% of donations will be distributed amongst the employees of this business. Between hourly employees including theater staff, kitchen workers, service workers including bartenders, servers, and bussers, and our cleaning crew, we have many people to look out for. Every little bit helps this hardworking team. I (Elizabeth Stark), part of the management team of the business (who will not be personally collecting any funds raised here), have been elected by the hourly employees to divide the collected funds evenly between all hourly employees who wish to receive an even portion of these online "tips." We do not plan to begin dividing these generous donations until our goal has been reached. 

With so much uncertainty in our lives right now, we need the support of our community to help our employees and their families stay afloat while we are closed to the public. Please consider donating any amount you can to help support these honest, caring workers. All funds will be managed by our employees and distributed to staff without ownership participation. 

*Written and organized by Elizabeth (Lily) Stark, co-manager of Carbon Arc and proud Lincoln Square resident and neighbor. I personally can and will attest to the strength of our character both as individual workers and as a team. These are good, kind, hardworking people.