To the Dreamers Community: We need your help.

We wouldn’t be where we are today without you, our incredible community. It’s the community that comes together and has created the space that Dreamers & Make-Believers has become; a space that hosts birthday parties, endless queer gatherings, and even a wedding. Because of this community, we were nominated as an Eisner Award Finalist in 2025. That honor belongs to all of us. Unfortunately, we need to call on our community to rally behind us for a different reason.

Running a comic shop, bookstore, and café has always been challenging, but over the past year, those challenges have intensified. Utilities like BGE continue to raise rates, the threat of government shutdowns and economic uncertainty looms constantly, and our primary comic distributor filed for bankruptcy last January before shutting down entirely in December.

Behind the scenes, this has meant lost packages, delayed and incorrect shipments, surprise pallets of books, and countless hours spent solving problems just to keep inventory moving. Miranda calls it “small business whack-a-mole,” and it’s painfully accurate. We process hundreds of new items every week (often before opening, after closing, and during slow shop hours) just to keep the shelves stocked and the shop feeling welcoming.

Because of this instability, budgeting and cash flow have become nearly impossible. Some days we see four or five people total; the very same day the next week, we can’t keep up with the foot traffic. We’ve already had to cut staff hours, and Miranda and I have taken on more daily operations ourselves, leaving very little time for the behind-the-scenes work that actually builds and sustains this community.

2025 has also been an incredibly difficult year personally: I was days away from a massive heart attack last summer; we lost our beloved cat, Jack, the shop flooded, destroying thousands of dollars in fixtures and inventory. It felt like every time we caught our breath, something else knocked us back down.

Financially, we’ve never made a large profit. Miranda and I don’t take home a salary, and we often eat meals comprised of leftovers from the café. This business was built entirely with personal savings, including emptying our retirement accounts. In 2024, rising expenses were balanced by rising sales, and we were getting by. In 2025, sales dropped sharply. In October alone, bookstore sales fell 48%, and we lost nearly two-thirds of our weekly subscription customers almost overnight, due in large part to the government shutdown. Expenses, however, continued to rise.

Now, as we should be preparing for Free Comic Book Day, Graphic Novel Festival, and a hopeful Eisner nomination in 2026, we’re instead trying to survive the start of the year.

We’ve launched this GoFundMe with a goal of $30,000 to help us get through this critical moment. This will allow us to address immediate debts, keep inventory arriving on time, and stabilize the shop so we can continue serving our community.

While we are currently a for-profit business, our mission has always been community first. Dreamers exists to be a safe third space, a place where people feel welcome, affirmed, and connected. A place for free clothing swaps, a community pantry, the “Gay It Forward” cabinet, first dates, new friendships, and moments of joy. We are not just a store or café, we are a community hub.

We have so many plans for 2026 that we want to share with our community, from new book clubs, to new events & opportunities for connection. While we’re eager to share details on these new happenings, we first need to get through this storm.

We love this community so much, and we are so grateful for the support that you all have shown us in the past few years since opening our permanent location in Highlandtown (and even longer when considering our pop ups around the city!). This is absolutely the best job either of us have ever had, and we love working tirelessly every day to give something back to our community. We do not take for granted each day we get to open our doors and have our space available for anyone who needs to come take a breath, hug a giant stuffed unicorn, get a free bite to eat, see themselves reflected in the books around them, or simply find joy in a world that often feels hellbent on squashing it. We don’t want to close these doors. Asking for help is hard, but community is the reason Dreamers exists, and it’s the reason we believe we can make it through this.

Thank you for reading. Thank you for being part of the Dreamers community. And thank you, truly, for giving whatever you can.

With love and gratitude,

Sam

Your Head Make-Believer