Neighbors Raise Thousands To Save Crown Heights Hardware Store

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — Time is running out for the local hardware store owner who needs to earn almost $24,000 by Tuesday to save his business.

“Maybe I will be evicted and my children will not have food to eat,” said Mohammed Kamara, owner of American Star Hardware on St. Johns Place, in a video posted to a neighborhood GoFundMe campaign. “My financial condition is very adverse.”

Crown Heights residents rallied behind Kamara, whose store has been a neighborhood staple for about 20 years, after he discovered he either had to buy the building from the former landlord's estate or face eviction.

Kamara has found an investor to help him buy 1386 St. Johns Place, but must pay $23,400 in penalties and tax fines by Feb. 13 for the deal to go through, neighbors said on the GoFundMe page.

Donations have been pouring in since the campaign first launched in early January and by Feb. 12 locals had managed to raise $16,509, about $7,000 shy of Kamara’s goal.

“Mohammed Kamara is a cherished member of this local community and he is the father of six children,” neighbors wrote. “Even if you do not know him directly, his plight is that of every small business owner being displaced in a rapidly gentrified city.”

“If we stand in solidarity in cases like this we can help decide the future of our neighborhoods and keep our communities together.”

Kamara told his neighbors, who produced a campaign video and launched the GoFundMe site, that keeping the hardware store in business has been his struggle for about 20 years.

The small-business owner works seven days a week and has never taken a vacation, he said, not even after his mother died and was buried on the west coast of Africa.

“I have never ever had the opportunity to even go to Conakry, Guinea, to see her grave,” he said. “I didn’t have the money.”

Locals, who have donated as little as $10 and as much as $5,000, continue to leave notes of encouragement on the shop owner’s crowdfunding site.

“It takes a village and we are all here to support you,” wrote donor Alisa Yalan-Murphy. “Let's make this happen!”

“Wishing you security in the business you've worked so hard for, in the community you love,” wrote Ellen Osuna. “And wishing you a well deserved vacation, when the time is right.”

Video courtesy of GoFundMe.com. GoFundMe is a Patch promotional partner.