Donations continue to pour in for those affected in the Woodman Ave explosion Wednesday night, even as the city urges caution.
Daniel Phillips at Illbury and Goose knew he wanted to help.
“I wanted to get something out there on behalf of our business,” says Phillips. “After the design was posted on our Instagram and Facebook…people started saying we should put that on a shirt, and that's when the lightbulb went off.”
They’ve been so overwhelmed by orders, they had to stop the pre-sale of the shirts so they could start to collect the money and start printing. They expect to contribute over $10,000 to the families.
The show of support is not surprising to Kate Graham, who part of the Old East Village Community Association (OEVCA).
“There have been significant cash donations, and also a number of people offering discounts on goods and services,” says Graham. “We’ve been trying to coordinate everything to make sure it gets to these families as quickly as possible.”
The OEVCA will meet Tuesday to get a better picture of who needs what, and how to distribute the donations. At this point, she says the best way to help is to donate through the established Libro account.
They’ll have a better understanding of how much money will be raised after Tuesday’s benefit concert at Aeolian Hall. The seven acts have been finalized for the show which begins at 7 p.m.
“Anytime I can help in the community, especially when it's affected my friends, and people I know personally, it’s a no-brainer,” says local tattoo artist and country singer Aaron Allen.
“It’s unfortunate this happened, but look at this amazing thing…everyone will band together and help each other out,” he adds.
But with Londoners feeling the need to help, comes a caution from authorities.
The City of London and the London Fire Department have issued a joint public service announcement. They state they are not doing any crowdfunding for the injured firefighters and both warn the public to do your due diligence before making any donations.
