By EMILY WILSON, Half Moon Bay Review
More than 8,000 people attended the June 11 block party to honor Bev Ashcraft and her store, Cunha's Country Grocery, which burned to the ground on May 21.
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"It isn't an exact figure yet," said Jack Olsen, the treasure of the Half Moon Bay Beautification Committee, which spearheaded the event, "It looks like just slightly over $100,000 with a one-day event."
With the current account flush with more than $36,000 in donations, the block party money could push the total above the $150,000 mark.
And on top of that, several fundraisers are yet to come.
That's a lot of employee relief.
Cameron Palmer, the president of the Committee and a veteran of many Pumpkin Festivals, has done his share of organizing events. But this was something special, he said.
"It was just so much different from Pumpkin Festival," he said. "Every few steps you'd be running into a neighbor or a church member of a friend - there was a whole different feel than other events."
Palmer said the numbers of people who turned up in downtown Half Moon Bay to pay their respects didn't surprise him.
"It's what I expected," he said. "I thought it would be that big of a turnout. I didn't think we'd creep over $100,000 in my wildest dreams, but that's good news."
Part of the reason the amount raised was so high was due to the generosity of the people at the event, Palmer said - both people who contributed their time to make it happen and those who attended. Palmer said there were many who paid for their kids although kids were free or gave far more than the $20 admission fee.
"People definitely got into the spirit of the whole event," he said.
That spirit of generosity was something that Alison Southerland, who runs a company called Promote Yourself with her husband Wayne, noticed. The Southerlands made the T-shirts and buttons at cost and sold them with the help of some volunteers.
'It was a really positive response," Southerland said. "People would hand us a $50 and say 'Keep it.' The whole atmosphere of the event was not so much mournful as a community effort to help Bev Ashcraft and her staff."
The money raised at the event will go to help the store's employees stay afloat while they are waiting for Cunha's to be rebuilt, according to Mike Bredenback, Ashcraft's financial adviser.
"Apparently the senior management employee salaries will be continued for some period of time while it's being constructed," he said.
For the 20 or so line employees who are only covered by insurance for 60 days, Bredenbeck said the money will go to making up the difference between the unemployment insurance they will get after those 60 days are up and their salaries.
"We are trying to keep them whole because Bev would like to have that whole employee base back," he said. "Bev says she cannot imagine reopening without the family of employees she knows and the customers know."
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