A New England cafe owner is crediting Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy for helping save her business.
Katie Winglass, who owns Mae's Café & Bakery in Bath, Maine, received a large donation from Portnoy's "Barstool Fund" after her daughter submitted a video reaching out to the Massachusetts native, WMTW reports.
Like many others, Winglass' business has been hit hard by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions that have been implemented to combat the number of positive cases.
"I definitely had times where I start to see a trend and I say if this continues, we're not going to be here in a month,” Winglass said via WMTW.
Winglass said her business has had to limit hours of operation and reduce patron capacity by two-thirds, which led to submitting the video, which she believed to be a long shot.
"I looked at some of the other submission videos and I said, ‘OK, this is what they're looking for – a lot of people are crying. I'm not going to cry.’ As soon as it came out of my mouth – I just, I lost it,” Winglass said via WMTW.
Winglass said she received a FaceTime call from Portnoy telling her the café would receive $8,000 while she was driving on Monday.
"It means I can breathe a little easy, a little easier. I can pay my people and I can pay my bills and just know that there's somebody out there that cares,” Winlgass said via WMTW.
Portnoy's "Barstool Fund" has already raised more than $32 million to help struggling businesses amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, with notable donors including New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and former Pats and current Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady.
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