“We were really excited,” Hubbard said. “We’re so thankful when the window arrived because of the love from the community.”
Brad Baker of Pinball Garage organized a fundraiser on July 28 to help Hubbard and established a GoFundMe page to help raise funds for the bakery that did not have insurance to cover the damages caused from the break-in. The GoFundMe account raised more than $6,300 in eight hours, tripling the initial goal of $2,000 and eventually reached more than $7,300 by July 27.
“Brad is a good friend and a hard worker," Hubbard said.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
She said because of the success of the online fundraiser, officials with GoFundMe asked for more information, identification and verification before they would distribute any of the funds.
According to the GoFundMe page, the total reached was $7,862 from 201 donations to help the bakery.
Hubbard said it took a few weeks for Go Fund Me to process the verification and other information before the funds were released.
She said it took several more weeks for the customized plate glass to be delivered and installed. In addition to the new window, Hubbard said some of the proceeds were used to purchase insurance, a new security system and a new mixer. She said they renovated the store by changing around the display cases and will soon be serving Expresso drinks for their customers.
“We were ridiculously overwhelmed from the love from the community,” Hubbard said. “I had crying fits and kept asking why do we stand out for such community support. We had people come in and hand us money without buying anything and they kept saying, ‘We want you to stay open. We don’t want you to fail.'”
Hubbard and others painted a mural on the plywood covering the spot of the missing window.
“The mural is going to be kept because it’s special,” she said. The plywood had a message painted on it, “Broken, but not destroyed."
“We’re tremendously grateful to the community,” Hubbard said. “It’s an honor to serve the community. We always wanted to be in Hamilton. They took care of us and shown us how much the city loves us.”
Hamilton police Sgt. Rich Burkhardt said the July break-in remains an open case.
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