After Allie Carrol heard her neighbor at Charles Street Cleaners was burglarized over the weekend for the second time since Memorial Day, the owner of Rainbows Pottery Studio pitched in to help out a fellow Charles Street business in every way she could.
Carroll donated all her store’s proceeds from Monday and Tuesday, Aug. 2, as well as income from a lemonade stand that children from her pottery studio’s summer camp set up outside the storefront Monday, which totaled nearly $400 by Tuesday afternoon, to Charles Street Cleaners. She has also set up a GoFundMe page (https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-charles-street-cleaners-recoup-losses?member=12915577&sharetype=teams&utm_campaign=p_na+share-sheet&utm_medium=sms&utm_source=customer), with a target goal of raising $5,000 to help them recoup their losses.
“It’s just being neighborly and teaching the kids about helping out in their community,” said Carrol. “And as a business, we don’t like to give back to large charities; instead, we like to give back in our communities, where we can see how our efforts improve the lives of those around us.”
At around 7 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 4, Boston Police responded to a reported breaking and entering at the drycleaners at 17 Charles St. The business owner told police when they arrived at work that day at 6:40 a.m., they observed a brick that had been thrown through the front window lying on the ground near the doorway, along with glass on the floor. A computer monitor had also been toppled onto the floor behind the counter, while the cash drawer, which had about $100 inside, was missing.
At about 4:13 a.m. on Saturday, June 4, Boston Police had also responded to the drycleaners on a radio call for reported vandalism and found that the business’s front window was broken. Police were unable to determine whether any suspects had gained entry to the drycleaners at this time, however, according to Boston Police.
Veronica Kim, owner of Charles Street Cleaners, estimates that losses from the incident over last weekend, between damages and missing items, cost them between $2,500 and $5,000, while losses from the June 4 incident set them back around $2,200. And although the drycleaners has insurance, it doesn’t cover the losses from either of these incidents, she said.
“It breaks my heart she has to deal with this today, Carroll said Monday.
Carroll can empathize with Kim’s predicament, too, since vandals threw a brick through her store’s front window at the end of June, although they didn’t take anything from the business at that time.
“Boston Window Repair came and boarded up the window,” said Carroll. “It was a really sad experience for the kids.”
Kim also helped Carroll identify suspects who stole items from the display tables outside the pottery studio.
Carroll hopes that supporting Charles Street Cleaners will instill a lesson in positivity, as well as in the importance of being neighborly, in her campers. “This is the way I teach children how to turn a negative into a positive,” she said