Holly Morgan needs you right now.
Donazione protetta
Do you know Holly Morgan? If you know her then you know it’s impossible not to love her. The last three years has seen Holly spending every waking moment dedicated to building a positive life affirming business growing oyster mushrooms in Portland, Oregon. She built this business, aptly named PALS Mushrooms, from the ground up. Google: Mushrooms + Portland, Pals is at the top of the list.
It has been a constant struggle through highs and lows, having barely a handful of days off in the last three years. Living on the knife's edge, on fumes, grinding away, bone on bone for three long years of blood, sweat, and tears, she created an amazing entity making healthy food, educating about the wonders of mushrooms, and adding to the flavor of the Portland community at large. Because of equipment breakdowns and issues with production problems she’s had to reboot the farm over a dozen times in the past 2 years, which resulted in the need to put any spare capital she’s had back into the business to keep it afloat. While she's been able to pay a couple of helpers, she’s been unable to pay herself and has always had to work another job while building PALS.
While transitioning from a job at Kenton Station to a new, higher paying job at Sizzle Pie in March 2020, the quarantine hit and she lost both jobs. The timing of this compounded with an overwhelmed Unemployment Department, who gave her bad advice, she found herself fighting for benefits and living without income for much of 2020, only finally getting some relief in Feb 2021 after an frustrating and demoralizing battle with them. As of 2 weeks ago the Unemployment Dept reassured her she was to get benefits through May 2021, however last week they admitted they had made yet another mistake and not only can she not claim anymore and but she might be back charged for benefits already paid!
As a resident of Portland, Oregon for 25.5 years (half her life) Holly has helped the music scene as a booker, a supporter, and an active participant as a member of numerous bands including the Nearly Deads, Pist’Uns, Juanita Family, Sex Crime and her longest running band Thee Headliners. She’s also been an anchor in the food/bar scene as a partner in the pivotal restaurant Chez What!? Cafe & her time at Porky’s Pub after which she transitioned to taking people home safely as a cabbie, offering a friendly face and dependable representative of Portland stalwarts Radio Cab for many years. She was nominated numerous times and won the Barfly Awards category for Coolest Cabbie in Portland, even being picked by the Willamette Week as being the Best Drunk Driver(i,e,-driving the drunks around). Always full of warmth and compassion, Holly has shown her nature to be positive, loving, and genuine. The world needs people like Holly.
Sadly Holly is planning to leave her adopted hometown of Portland for her roots in upper Michigan. The financial strain of 2020 forced her to put her farm up for sale in the Fall of last year in a last ditch effort to avoid homelessness after building up a substantial amount of overdue back rent and bills unpaid due to the pandemic. An unexpected blessing happened when she took this action, in the form of an angel investor stepping forward to help finance potential buyers. During this time she found a problematic property in Upper Michigan that despite its issues was perfect to convert to another mushroom farm as well as a new home. She made an arrangement to borrow the money herself to not just lock down this property but to finally have a little to invest in the farm (which finally has a solid foundation with all issues corrected).
After building Pals she shared the vision of the business to over 30 interested parties and just recently has agreed to sell off the business to a collective for which she will still retain a small portion of ownership. With the sale of Pals Mushrooms, Holly is on her way to fulfill her dream to buy this fixer property in Michigan with the plan to build a new mushroom business, again from scratch in the upper peninsula.
Life has thrown a series of curveballs at Holly in the last three years, but she has navigated them and come out stronger every time. Things have really gone sideways for Holly recently. As a result, timelines for when the money from the sale of Pals comes to her and for when she must pay out for moving and buying her property have become upended.
She will be getting installment payments, the first of which was to pay off the angel investor as well as repay each lender to date who has supported her before leaving town. Unfortunately, the payments have changed, so she won’t be getting the second payment for the sale of Pals until mid-July, however her deadline to move out of Oregon is May 15. She absolutely has to leave at this time because the property she is purchasing has old leaky gas tanks on it and is being cleaned up by the EPA as of June 2021 as it was a gas station in another life. She absolutely has to be there by then.
Other circumstances have now put more challenges in Holly’s path, things she is not privy to share but these hurdles are so stressful that in the past two months she’s been newly stressed, grinding her teeth so that she had to have 5 dentist visits in as many weeks to repair and extract cracked teeth. She’s feels an ulcer is forming and is experiencing other mental and physical side effects that are hampering her ability to function. By far the biggest setback was the most recent snafu involving the continued fight to gain unemployment benefits from the State of Oregon. Bureaucracy moves like molasses and this payment was a large part of her plan to make the move in the coming weeks.
And yet she’s holding up like a trooper. She agonized about putting up a go fund me, feeling that it would be an admission of failure when she is so close to realizing this next stage in her life. Being that I am unable to financially help her with this huge task I at the very least have convinced her to allow me to take the reins and start a gofundme for her. She begrudgingly agreed to let me go forward with it. Here we are.
The money from the sale of Pals is coming in July to help her pay off her debts and begin the process of establishing a new home in Upper Michigan. In the meantime some very big expenses fell into her lap and any money you could send her way would go a long way in helping her maintain her sanity and forward momentum in the midst of this life changing moment for her.
These expenses include: her move from the house she has lived in for 25 years. (Can you imagine how big a move it is to uproot from 25 years in the same house?) She's given notice at her home that's she's leaving and there's someone else already waiting to move in so there is no lingering in Portland until the farm sale goes through. There are also moving costs to move all her possessions across country, the last 2 months of rent in Portland and surviving the first two months in Michigan before the money from the sale of Pals Mushrooms is finalized, she also needs to purchase a vehicle upon arriving in Michigan. She also needs to turn the water on in Michigan along with major repairs to the roof of the house she is purchasing. There are unexpected legal fees she's facing. It's piling up. She is panicked right now and could really use your help.
Any money and support you could send her way will go a long way in making this amazing lady keep on pushing. Thank you for taking the time to read this. The clock is ticking. Super time sensitive! May 15 will be here before you know it. Please help Portland, friends and neighbors! If you've met Holly you know how great she is. Please help my amazing friend as she makes this move which takes an incredible amount of guts.
It has been a constant struggle through highs and lows, having barely a handful of days off in the last three years. Living on the knife's edge, on fumes, grinding away, bone on bone for three long years of blood, sweat, and tears, she created an amazing entity making healthy food, educating about the wonders of mushrooms, and adding to the flavor of the Portland community at large. Because of equipment breakdowns and issues with production problems she’s had to reboot the farm over a dozen times in the past 2 years, which resulted in the need to put any spare capital she’s had back into the business to keep it afloat. While she's been able to pay a couple of helpers, she’s been unable to pay herself and has always had to work another job while building PALS.
While transitioning from a job at Kenton Station to a new, higher paying job at Sizzle Pie in March 2020, the quarantine hit and she lost both jobs. The timing of this compounded with an overwhelmed Unemployment Department, who gave her bad advice, she found herself fighting for benefits and living without income for much of 2020, only finally getting some relief in Feb 2021 after an frustrating and demoralizing battle with them. As of 2 weeks ago the Unemployment Dept reassured her she was to get benefits through May 2021, however last week they admitted they had made yet another mistake and not only can she not claim anymore and but she might be back charged for benefits already paid!
As a resident of Portland, Oregon for 25.5 years (half her life) Holly has helped the music scene as a booker, a supporter, and an active participant as a member of numerous bands including the Nearly Deads, Pist’Uns, Juanita Family, Sex Crime and her longest running band Thee Headliners. She’s also been an anchor in the food/bar scene as a partner in the pivotal restaurant Chez What!? Cafe & her time at Porky’s Pub after which she transitioned to taking people home safely as a cabbie, offering a friendly face and dependable representative of Portland stalwarts Radio Cab for many years. She was nominated numerous times and won the Barfly Awards category for Coolest Cabbie in Portland, even being picked by the Willamette Week as being the Best Drunk Driver(i,e,-driving the drunks around). Always full of warmth and compassion, Holly has shown her nature to be positive, loving, and genuine. The world needs people like Holly.
Sadly Holly is planning to leave her adopted hometown of Portland for her roots in upper Michigan. The financial strain of 2020 forced her to put her farm up for sale in the Fall of last year in a last ditch effort to avoid homelessness after building up a substantial amount of overdue back rent and bills unpaid due to the pandemic. An unexpected blessing happened when she took this action, in the form of an angel investor stepping forward to help finance potential buyers. During this time she found a problematic property in Upper Michigan that despite its issues was perfect to convert to another mushroom farm as well as a new home. She made an arrangement to borrow the money herself to not just lock down this property but to finally have a little to invest in the farm (which finally has a solid foundation with all issues corrected).
After building Pals she shared the vision of the business to over 30 interested parties and just recently has agreed to sell off the business to a collective for which she will still retain a small portion of ownership. With the sale of Pals Mushrooms, Holly is on her way to fulfill her dream to buy this fixer property in Michigan with the plan to build a new mushroom business, again from scratch in the upper peninsula.
Life has thrown a series of curveballs at Holly in the last three years, but she has navigated them and come out stronger every time. Things have really gone sideways for Holly recently. As a result, timelines for when the money from the sale of Pals comes to her and for when she must pay out for moving and buying her property have become upended.
She will be getting installment payments, the first of which was to pay off the angel investor as well as repay each lender to date who has supported her before leaving town. Unfortunately, the payments have changed, so she won’t be getting the second payment for the sale of Pals until mid-July, however her deadline to move out of Oregon is May 15. She absolutely has to leave at this time because the property she is purchasing has old leaky gas tanks on it and is being cleaned up by the EPA as of June 2021 as it was a gas station in another life. She absolutely has to be there by then.
Other circumstances have now put more challenges in Holly’s path, things she is not privy to share but these hurdles are so stressful that in the past two months she’s been newly stressed, grinding her teeth so that she had to have 5 dentist visits in as many weeks to repair and extract cracked teeth. She’s feels an ulcer is forming and is experiencing other mental and physical side effects that are hampering her ability to function. By far the biggest setback was the most recent snafu involving the continued fight to gain unemployment benefits from the State of Oregon. Bureaucracy moves like molasses and this payment was a large part of her plan to make the move in the coming weeks.
And yet she’s holding up like a trooper. She agonized about putting up a go fund me, feeling that it would be an admission of failure when she is so close to realizing this next stage in her life. Being that I am unable to financially help her with this huge task I at the very least have convinced her to allow me to take the reins and start a gofundme for her. She begrudgingly agreed to let me go forward with it. Here we are.
The money from the sale of Pals is coming in July to help her pay off her debts and begin the process of establishing a new home in Upper Michigan. In the meantime some very big expenses fell into her lap and any money you could send her way would go a long way in helping her maintain her sanity and forward momentum in the midst of this life changing moment for her.
These expenses include: her move from the house she has lived in for 25 years. (Can you imagine how big a move it is to uproot from 25 years in the same house?) She's given notice at her home that's she's leaving and there's someone else already waiting to move in so there is no lingering in Portland until the farm sale goes through. There are also moving costs to move all her possessions across country, the last 2 months of rent in Portland and surviving the first two months in Michigan before the money from the sale of Pals Mushrooms is finalized, she also needs to purchase a vehicle upon arriving in Michigan. She also needs to turn the water on in Michigan along with major repairs to the roof of the house she is purchasing. There are unexpected legal fees she's facing. It's piling up. She is panicked right now and could really use your help.
Any money and support you could send her way will go a long way in making this amazing lady keep on pushing. Thank you for taking the time to read this. The clock is ticking. Super time sensitive! May 15 will be here before you know it. Please help Portland, friends and neighbors! If you've met Holly you know how great she is. Please help my amazing friend as she makes this move which takes an incredible amount of guts.
Organizzatore e beneficiario
Chad Simmons
Organizzatore
Portland, OR
Holly Morgan
Beneficiario