Help Lawrence Park Cleaners save their business
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Synopsis: We're raising $20,000 to save Lawrence Park Cleaners, an immigrant-owned, family business owned by my mother, Kyung 'Ann" Ahn. Ann won 20K in grant funding, but no funds came. Ann, a senior citizen, is an excellent tailor and seamstress with many years of experience serving generations of families that still come to visit her. Due to COVID-19, our business has been drastically impacted and is facing the possibility of closure. We have applied to numerous grants and funding options to keep the business open. As we continue to pursue funding options in the midst of a poorly-managed, bureaucratic system, we're asking for your help. All donations will go directly to covering rent, operational costs, and legal expenses to contest a grant that was unfairly taken away from the business.
Story:
Kyung "Ann" Ahn, opened Lawrence Park Cleaners over two decades ago in Broomall, PA, a suburb of the greater Philadelphia region. This past month a grant coalition withdrew her successful application while in process of distributing her 20K grant funds. The grant will not correct their mistake and claim there is no more funds to resolve the error.
The grant partners revoked her award without notification. Around this time, my parents were bombarded by numerous fraudulent predatory calls and were concerned with protecting themselves from identity theft. The grant committee was calling awardees via phone to collect banking information. As we all know, sharing financial information over an unsecured line is suspicious. Any request for banking information, handled with a denial to provide information, is an act of self-protection and general common sense. A lesson well understood by my parents, immigrants often taken advantage of for their vulnerability, and one that informs them of how to survive the US economy.
Unfortunately we are all aware that scams and predatory calls are surging at this time. This granting committee took away a life-saving grant. As a testament to Kyung 'Ann" Ahn's interest in cultivating community, we are asking you for help in restoring the grant that was taken from her family.
In the process, it became clear that this example is not singular. This collective misfortune within a system of emergency care, is not reassuring at all, but an unfortunate insight of the whole view. Sometimes, the systems that are meant to help people, can cause more problems than solutions.
Since January 12, we have pivoted immediately to dive in to the nuances of PA state bureaucracy. Her daughter, has contacted and been in touch with legal aid services to understand what took place and find a solution. We must do our due diligence to understand the broader implications and contexts involved. While this work is unfolding, and at the request of all of you who have asked how you can help, this is one way the help can be immediately served.
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The funds in this campaign will go directly towards saving Ann's business, Lawrence Park Cleaners. Any auxiliary funds will serve other businesses we are locating that have faced similar challenges. We are actively pursuing avenues to know what other businesses have been affected.
Any and all of your support, compassion and action has been so enormously helpful and we couldn't have processed the complexity of the system and of our emotions without your advocacy. Thank you so much.
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[image ID: cover - family photo celebrating a birthday in 2017]
[image ID: in text body -
- Front view from 2019 of Ann's recently renovated storefront! Neon signs saying "Dry Cleaning" and "Alterations" in either side of the frame.
-Ann & Mike receiving some flowers from a visitor to the shop.
-Skipping rocks together on a visit to their daughter in Western MA.
- Ann & Mike on a video call with their daughter, before she headed down to PA, to help them apply for the grant ]
Story:
Kyung "Ann" Ahn, opened Lawrence Park Cleaners over two decades ago in Broomall, PA, a suburb of the greater Philadelphia region. This past month a grant coalition withdrew her successful application while in process of distributing her 20K grant funds. The grant will not correct their mistake and claim there is no more funds to resolve the error.
The grant partners revoked her award without notification. Around this time, my parents were bombarded by numerous fraudulent predatory calls and were concerned with protecting themselves from identity theft. The grant committee was calling awardees via phone to collect banking information. As we all know, sharing financial information over an unsecured line is suspicious. Any request for banking information, handled with a denial to provide information, is an act of self-protection and general common sense. A lesson well understood by my parents, immigrants often taken advantage of for their vulnerability, and one that informs them of how to survive the US economy.
Unfortunately we are all aware that scams and predatory calls are surging at this time. This granting committee took away a life-saving grant. As a testament to Kyung 'Ann" Ahn's interest in cultivating community, we are asking you for help in restoring the grant that was taken from her family.
In the process, it became clear that this example is not singular. This collective misfortune within a system of emergency care, is not reassuring at all, but an unfortunate insight of the whole view. Sometimes, the systems that are meant to help people, can cause more problems than solutions.
Since January 12, we have pivoted immediately to dive in to the nuances of PA state bureaucracy. Her daughter, has contacted and been in touch with legal aid services to understand what took place and find a solution. We must do our due diligence to understand the broader implications and contexts involved. While this work is unfolding, and at the request of all of you who have asked how you can help, this is one way the help can be immediately served.
++++
The funds in this campaign will go directly towards saving Ann's business, Lawrence Park Cleaners. Any auxiliary funds will serve other businesses we are locating that have faced similar challenges. We are actively pursuing avenues to know what other businesses have been affected.
Any and all of your support, compassion and action has been so enormously helpful and we couldn't have processed the complexity of the system and of our emotions without your advocacy. Thank you so much.
++++
[image ID: cover - family photo celebrating a birthday in 2017]
[image ID: in text body -
- Front view from 2019 of Ann's recently renovated storefront! Neon signs saying "Dry Cleaning" and "Alterations" in either side of the frame.
-Ann & Mike receiving some flowers from a visitor to the shop.
-Skipping rocks together on a visit to their daughter in Western MA.
- Ann & Mike on a video call with their daughter, before she headed down to PA, to help them apply for the grant ]
Fundraising team (3)
Autumn Ahn
Organizer
Norristown, PA
Kyung Ahn
Beneficiary
Sara Skolnick
Team member
Joanna Tam
Team member
