East Brunswick Business Receives Support From The Barstool Fund

EAST BRUNSWICKN NJ — Barbara Worby, owner of The Clothing Center in East Brunswick, received a special video call from the founder of Barstool Sports on Saturday.

David Portnoy FaceTimed Worby and tell her that The Clothing Center was a recipient of the Barstool Fund, to help overcome pandemic related difficulties.

“It’s nice to see the relief wash away when we call,” Portnoy told Worby, who was crying during the call.

“We got the video, the story, these are the type of companies we are looking for,” said Portnoy.

The Barstool Fund raises money to help small businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It kind of took us by surprise,” said Steve Worby. “Saturday was a very emotional day for us here in the store.”

The funds from Barstool comes at a tough time for The Clothing Center.

“All the weddings have been postponed, there's no bar mitzvahs, there's no communions. People are working from home so no business attires either,” said Worby.

“We've greatly been affected, but we stay positive here. We've been doing this a very long time, 43 years. And that's pretty much the story,” he said.

Portnoy started the fund to help small businesses across the country. So far, he has raised more than $22 million to help around 111 businesses.

The Clothing Center was shut during the beginning of the pandemic. They also had to relocate as the building was purchased and refurbished.

With not many orders coming in, the store went to work with St. Peter's University Hospital to upgrade hospital gowns when they were running short of PPE.

The Worbys applied to the Barstool Fund, “speaking from the heart” about how their business was affected.

“It was a little bit emotional,” said Worby.

Portnoy has since posted his call with Barbara on Twitter, which has received a lot of love from the East Brunswick community.

“We're gonna keep going. And, you know, we can hang in there for quite some time. We're waiting for this whole COVID thing to turn around,” said Steve.

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