Help Plum Bun Bakery Stay Open
Donation protected
Hello! My name is Elizabeth Serson, but most people around Ely know me as “Liz from the bakery.” With my husband by my side, we own and run Plum Bun Bakery, a business that was on its last legs when we bought it. We brought it back to life almost 14 years ago! Nine summers after we moved into our outlet location, and we’re still open! This, however, might not be the case for long.
The road to owning the bakery today was a long, and incredibly tumultuous one. Despite popular belief, owning a business doesn’t make you rich, even if your products are great quality. In our little town of 3,500, we see businesses come and go all the time, and we’ve done our best to be a staple of the town so we can stick around. It hasn’t been easy, but we do our best. Things, however, have recently gotten harder than we can handle.
In April of 2017, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Luckily, the doctors working with me caught it in a very early stage. In May, less than a month later, I had a bilateral mastectomy. The recovery time for this surgery was about 6 months, and yet over a year later, I’m still dealing with issues surrounding the procedure. Against medical recommendations, I reopened the business after only a few weeks of recovery time. For two whole months after that, we were unable to take orders for one of our major sources of income due to my physical limitations.
This was a major setback as far as finances go, and unfortunately, it won’t be the last one. In the coming winter of 2018, I will be going in to have a shoulder repair surgery, which will render my dominant arm virtually useless for approximately 4 months. The coming surgery is going to be another major setback for our little mom-and-pop bakery, and honestly, it’s seeming pretty bleak. This last year, we barely scraped by. We’re still feeling the effects of the lost income now.
On top of everything that’s happened so far, the City of Ely building inspector has served us with papers that call for our permanent shutdown in 180 days unless we start getting our building up to their standard. We hardly have money for our bills, much less hiring contractors to fix our building. Granted, this has been a long time coming, but now we’re on a time limit.
That’s where you come in!
If you enjoy our product, our family, our name, or just feel like throwing a few dollars our way, we would be incredibly grateful. Typically, I would be too proud to set up a fundraiser like this, but we’re quite literally on our last legs.
If we can’t get the building up to standard without depriving ourselves of basic needs, we’ll have to shut our doors. If you can’t donate anything, please spread the word, or come in and get a pastry! Any amount of money in any form will help!
Thank you so much for reading, and thank you to all of our loyal customers, who have helped us stay afloat this long!
The road to owning the bakery today was a long, and incredibly tumultuous one. Despite popular belief, owning a business doesn’t make you rich, even if your products are great quality. In our little town of 3,500, we see businesses come and go all the time, and we’ve done our best to be a staple of the town so we can stick around. It hasn’t been easy, but we do our best. Things, however, have recently gotten harder than we can handle.
In April of 2017, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Luckily, the doctors working with me caught it in a very early stage. In May, less than a month later, I had a bilateral mastectomy. The recovery time for this surgery was about 6 months, and yet over a year later, I’m still dealing with issues surrounding the procedure. Against medical recommendations, I reopened the business after only a few weeks of recovery time. For two whole months after that, we were unable to take orders for one of our major sources of income due to my physical limitations.
This was a major setback as far as finances go, and unfortunately, it won’t be the last one. In the coming winter of 2018, I will be going in to have a shoulder repair surgery, which will render my dominant arm virtually useless for approximately 4 months. The coming surgery is going to be another major setback for our little mom-and-pop bakery, and honestly, it’s seeming pretty bleak. This last year, we barely scraped by. We’re still feeling the effects of the lost income now.
On top of everything that’s happened so far, the City of Ely building inspector has served us with papers that call for our permanent shutdown in 180 days unless we start getting our building up to their standard. We hardly have money for our bills, much less hiring contractors to fix our building. Granted, this has been a long time coming, but now we’re on a time limit.
That’s where you come in!
If you enjoy our product, our family, our name, or just feel like throwing a few dollars our way, we would be incredibly grateful. Typically, I would be too proud to set up a fundraiser like this, but we’re quite literally on our last legs.
If we can’t get the building up to standard without depriving ourselves of basic needs, we’ll have to shut our doors. If you can’t donate anything, please spread the word, or come in and get a pastry! Any amount of money in any form will help!
Thank you so much for reading, and thank you to all of our loyal customers, who have helped us stay afloat this long!
Organizer
Elizabeth Serson
Organizer
Ely, MN
