“In the days following the Feb. 28 fire that will keep Satchel’s Pizza closed for three months, owner Satchel Raye was thinking of how to help the 50 Satchel’s employees who were left out of work, reported Alligator.com. They’d collect unemployment, he said, but it wouldn’t be enough. ‘We have a lot of people with kids and mortgages,’ Raye said. Satchel’s Pizza usually pays out $27,000 every two weeks. That doesn’t include tips.”

“To help with the bills, he created the Satchel’s Pizza Employee Relief Fund on IndieGoGo, an online fundraising website. Raye initially wanted to give the fundraising page three weeks to raise $20,000 instead of two weeks. If the fundraising goal wasn’t met, Satchel’s would have to pay IndieGoGo a percentage of the donations. The page raised $1,000 within the first hour. About 24 hours after the page went up, the Satchel’s Pizza Employee Relief Fund had met its goal of $20,000. ‘I could just refresh my page and the money was just going in there,’ Raye said. ‘t was just mindboggling.”’

“As of press time, 641 people had given a total of $35,416 to the fundraiser. Lisa Duke, who teaches advertising at UF, first heard about the fire at Satchel’s Pizza on Facebook. ‘I was really sad because I love that place,’ she said. ‘I take my son there.’ Just after that, one of Duke’s students posted about the Satchel’s IndieGoGo page. Duke knew she had to help. She gave $200. Duke said the creativity of the restaurant is what touched her so deeply and made her want to help. ‘You could just tell that someone poured their whole heart and soul into that business,’ she said. ‘I really feel like Satchel put himself in that building.”