The Good Will Social Club Needs Your Help!
The Good Will Social Club is hoping to raise $45,000 in order to cover accumulating rent expenses while we are closed during the COVID-19 shutdown.
Everyone we know has been impacted by this shutdown. We’re not the only ones. We see our community struggling: our colleagues in the hospitality and entertainment industry are out of work; members of the music and performing arts communities have lost gigs for the foreseeable future. Knowing all this, it feels difficult reaching out to you.
On March 16th, 2020 we made the difficult decision to temporarily close our doors to adhere to government guidelines and do our part to flatten the curve.
The problem is, like with most small businesses right now, closing our doors means our income grinds to a halt, while our expenses do not. The big one being our rent.
For most bars and restaurants, margins are razor thin at the best of times. We spent the last of our cash reserves to pay our team of 30+ employees their final paycheques. Now our bank account is empty while our April rent is overdue and May rent is looming.
Help us avoid a lockout
Without legislation that protects commercial tenants from eviction, our landlord’s threat to lock us out feels very real. Having seen this already happen to another Winnipeg bar just last week, we are genuinely worried.
Although the federal government has announced intentions for commercial rent assistance, with no details available we fear it won’t come soon enough, or last long enough (Trudeau announced it’s only for the months of April, May and June).
It’s going to be awhile before we can do what we do best—bringing people together through music and community events. September if we’re lucky. The live entertainment sector will likely be the last part of the economy to operate at “normal levels” again as social distancing measures slowly loosen.
With your support, the money we raise will pay 50% of our April, May and June rent with the hopes that the federal plan will cover the other half. Considering our estimated reopening in September, we will use the remaining donations to pay rent over the summer.
What we’re doing in the meantime
We are in the process of applying for the Canadian Emergency Business Account loan to go towards our mounting utility bills. We don’t want to keep worrying about whether or not we can pay our next bill. Our goal is to focus on helping reignite the Manitoba music and arts community once we can open again.
We aren’t ready to give up on the Good Will Social Club, and we hope you aren’t either.
With love and thanks,
Anthony, Cam, David, Donavan, Mike, Tim and Tyler
