SANTA MONICA—On May 31, the local business known as Geoffrey’s Hi De Ho Comics in Santa Monica was the victim of a looting. The next day, store owner Geoffrey Patterson posted on social media to inform store patrons.
He also uploaded a crowd-sourcing GoFundMe page so that interested parties could donate money to help him repair the store, which he cites on the GoFundMe as “a fixture of Santa Monica for 43 years, making us (the store) the oldest comic book store in Los Angeles County.”
The small business suffered as a result of the looting, having endured property damage as the store was broken into, cash registers and computers were broken and products were either stolen, damaged or in disarray.
Despite the situation, the store’s goal of $45,000 for repairs was met after 5 days, with patrons offering heartfelt encouragements along with their monetary donations in the comments of the GoFundMe page.
On June 11, Patterson responded by updating both the GoFundMe page and the store’s Facebook page. He thanked those who already donated before going on to encourage further donations, citing that parts of future donations would go to two nonprofits: Southern Poverty Law Center and Book Industry Charitable Foundation (Binc).
Geoffrey explains on the GoFundMe page that with excess donations he wishes to create a new program to give back to and provide for the community, with a final goal of creating a “book-mobile” for the program that will bring messages of art and positivity to anyone, regardless of their background.
The link to the GoFundMe page can be found here.
