The COVID-19 pandemic has caused much stress for many local businesses who fall into the Phase 3 and 4 categories of Saskatchewan’s reopening plans, due to the unknown timeline of their return to operation.
One of those local businesses is the Capitol Music Club, which has turned to a GoFundMe page looking for help.
The venue, which opened in 2014, has helped generate hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars for local charities and organizations in their six years of operation.
Although he initially felt uneasy about asking his community for help, co-owner Mitch Lupichuk knew as debt begins to mount that the community contributions could be crucial to the survival of the venue.
“I’m not even like, still totally comfortable with the idea of taking the money,” Lupichuk said. “To be honest, we’ve never had a loan, we’ve done all of this ourselves.”
After receiving encouragement from friends and others in the industry, the Capitol’s brain trust made the decision to go forward with the campaign.
“Basically, we realized that there’s no way that we can do it without some type of cash injection,” Lupichuk said.
Despite the uncertainty of when he’ll be able to reopen the Capitol’s doors, Lupichuk remains positive as a local business owner in Saskatchewan.
“The nice thing about Saskatchewan is that we really stick up for each other,” he said. “People really take the shop local and that kind of stuff really seriously. If anything bad ever happens in the province, it seems like the entire population steps up.”
In the meantime, the Capitol’s kitchen is still offering takeout options on both food and liquor products.