Hermantown Resident Raises Money For Favorite Local Restaurant

With the help of the internet and different media outlets such as Tik Tok, Instagram, YouTube and others some people have found success with thousand of followers who not only will occasionally support them with online gifts or money, but others that this particular influencer asks them to help out.

Many of these top influencers use an APP called Venmo  which allows people to send and receive payments, pay bills etc. One such person is Alyssa Greene, who is a social media blogger from Hermantown. Greene has close to 200 thousand followers on  Instagram.

As we all know in Minnesota with the four week pandemic lockdown in place many bars and restaurants are struggling to stay afloat. If they are open at all it is for carry out only which means many employees are left idle with out work, and the owners of these places struggle to keep the business going. This is where Greene stepped in wanting to help out.

After having seen many people using their online accounts to raise money for workers and giving them massive tips, she decided to try and do the "Venmo Challenge" herself. According to CBS3 Greene said:

It's something so simple for me to go on my Instagram and try and gather a bunch of people who just want to do better. Within the first hour I had a thousand dollars, and in less than a day I collected $4,000 from people all over the world, just looking to make someone's day.

So Greene and her husband headed out to one of their favorite restaurants in the area Va' Bene with the whole $4,000. Luke Schmitz who is the owner said he did not believe it until he had the actual cash in his hands. Schmitz said the generosity of Greene will go a long way for his staff.

Greene said: "The coolest thing was every single person that had the money said we are going to evenly distribute this so regardless of how much I gave the server they split it all equally which speaks to the character of the people who work here." She went on to say she would be open to doing a second Venmo challenge but encouraged everyone in the area to support local businesses anyway you can.

This is such an awesome example of the character of people in this area. I happen to have very good friends of mine who own restaurants in the Twin Ports and now solely have to rely on take out orders. They have all said they are blown away by the support people have shown. This is what is going to help us pull out from this horrible pandemic. Look out for your neighbors and local business we can get through this if we all look out for each other.