Help Save GR’s Cleaners, a Park Slope Institution
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As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, more and more small businesses are shuttering, unable to survive the harsh economic conditions. Here in NYC, a few of us have decided to open a campaign to help one of our neighbors weather this storm.
Grace Roche is the owner of GR’s Cleaners, a small business in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Park Slope. Grace came to the USA from the Philippines in 1982 to work as a nanny for a Filipino family, then in 1990 she started working for GR’s Cleaners (then called Park Slope Clothes Care). After her boss passed away, he left her the company in 2006, and she has been running it almost singlehandedly ever since.
GR’s Cleaners is something of a local landmark; parents running quick errands often leave their children in the shop, neighbors who are traveling outside the city often arrange for their packages and mail to be dropped off there, and Grace herself has on numerous occasions helped members of the community who have been sick or otherwise unable to care for themselves. It’s not for nothing that many residents of this neighborhood have nicknamed Grace “the Mayor of Park Slope.”
GR’s Cleaners provides laundry and tailoring services, but its primary source of income is dry cleaning. In the several months since NYC instituted social distancing measures, with so many people still unable or unwilling to travel to an office, business has plummeted. Now, Grace is struggling to pay rent for both her small business and her own apartment. To help her out in these uncertain times, we are asking neighbors, friends, and generous strangers to help her pay the shop’s rent through the end of the year. The flat rent (not counting utilities or other expenses) is $4000/month, so our fundraising goal of $16,000 takes into account the months of September, October, November, and December. Our hope is that this will help Grace keep her business afloat until we have a better sense of the economic and societal fallout of COVID-19 in the city.
Please help us save an immigrant- and woman-of-color-owned small business that has provided so much joy, as well as a sense of community and family, to this neighborhood for years.
Grace Roche is the owner of GR’s Cleaners, a small business in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Park Slope. Grace came to the USA from the Philippines in 1982 to work as a nanny for a Filipino family, then in 1990 she started working for GR’s Cleaners (then called Park Slope Clothes Care). After her boss passed away, he left her the company in 2006, and she has been running it almost singlehandedly ever since.
GR’s Cleaners is something of a local landmark; parents running quick errands often leave their children in the shop, neighbors who are traveling outside the city often arrange for their packages and mail to be dropped off there, and Grace herself has on numerous occasions helped members of the community who have been sick or otherwise unable to care for themselves. It’s not for nothing that many residents of this neighborhood have nicknamed Grace “the Mayor of Park Slope.”
GR’s Cleaners provides laundry and tailoring services, but its primary source of income is dry cleaning. In the several months since NYC instituted social distancing measures, with so many people still unable or unwilling to travel to an office, business has plummeted. Now, Grace is struggling to pay rent for both her small business and her own apartment. To help her out in these uncertain times, we are asking neighbors, friends, and generous strangers to help her pay the shop’s rent through the end of the year. The flat rent (not counting utilities or other expenses) is $4000/month, so our fundraising goal of $16,000 takes into account the months of September, October, November, and December. Our hope is that this will help Grace keep her business afloat until we have a better sense of the economic and societal fallout of COVID-19 in the city.
Please help us save an immigrant- and woman-of-color-owned small business that has provided so much joy, as well as a sense of community and family, to this neighborhood for years.
Organizer and beneficiary
Brooks Sherman
Organizer
Brooklyn, NY
Grace Roche
Beneficiary