Westsider Rare & Used Books bookstore is a big name on Manhattan's Upper West Side. It's the type of old shop where you can wander narrow walkways for hours while looking through towering shelves stuffed with books ranging from cheap, used copies to rare collections. The store has even been used as a setting in several films.
In January, a neighborhood resident Bobby Panza, saw the Westsider was having a going-out-of-business sale. He also read a story on a local blog in which store owner Dorian Thornley made an "off the cuff (即兴的)" remark that the store could stay open if it could raise $50,000 — "don't see that happening, though," Thornley mentioned at the time.
Panza, who had never formally met Thornley but had shopped at the store for a decade, started a GoFundMe campaign. In just four days, 850 people donated from $5 to thousands of dollars each and raised $54,000.
With the money, Thornley updated (更新) the store's selection of used and rare books and reorganized the interior (内部) of the bookstore. Thornley also intended to buy advertising for his store, but the publicity from the GoFundMe campaign has helped raise awareness and helped boost (提高) Westsider's sales by nearly 25%. Thornley has saved some of the money to ensure Westsider won't fall behind on its rent again.
Thornley found out about the crowd funding effort the day after it started when a customer asked whether Thornley was serious about keeping the store open for good if $50,000 could be raised. When he told her he was serious, the customer — a local writer named Sally Klingenstein Martell — donated $10,000 to get the effort off the ground. Thornley calls Martell's significant donation "the motivator for everyone else donating".
Whether the money will be enough to permanently save the business remains to be seen. But now that Westsider has avoided the worst, Thornley is trying to make that happen.
