Around Town: Community steps up to help Midtown businesses destroyed by fire

In the latest column, read news about GoFundMe pages set up to aid AJ’s Quick Clean Center and Bill’s Cafe, a Stanford student making a second run on Jeopardy! and a local couple that worked with Grammy-winning artists.

SEEKING COMMUNITY SUPPORT … Community members have launched online fundraisers to support businesses at a Midtown shopping plaza that were destroyed by a fire on Feb. 1.

A GoFundMe page created about two weeks ago to support the staff at Bill’s Cafe has raised (as of Wednesday afternoon) $3,695 of its $10,000 goal. “The staff needs our help to get through this difficult time as they all scramble to find new jobs,” organizers said on the page. “If you’ve ever wanted to thank someone for their service, here’s a chance to make a difference in their lives.” The page states that the contributions will be divided by restaurant manager Maria Lua and distributed evenly across all staff members. To donate, visit gofund.me/cc0b22a2.

Late last week, a separate GoFundMe was created for the staff at AJ’s Quick Clean Center. That effort had raised $5,075 of its $50,000 goal as of Wednesday afternoon. Operated by Chris Choi and Jay Lee and their families, the small business has been around since 1962. “The road to recovery is going to be very long,” Lee, the fundraiser’s organizer, said on the page. “Please consider donating what you can to support AJ’s Cleaners in coping with the severe financial impact of the fire and help them rebuild.” To donate, visit gofund.me/927c5196.

BACK IN COMPETITION … Stanford University senior Avi Gupta, who is competing in the Jeopardy! High School Reunion Tournament, was victorious in his quarterfinals round that aired on Tuesday. Some may recognize Gupta, who was the show’s Teen Tournament champion in 2019.

On Tuesday, he faced off against fellow seniors Jack Izzo of Northwestern University and Alison Purcell of the University of Texas at Austin. He managed to get himself out of the negative before the first round ended and was in third place entering the second round.

During a brief break, Gupta shared that he dedicated a portion of his winnings from 2019 to set up a fund for pancreatic cancer research at a cancer institute in his hometown of Portland, Oregon. (In 2019, former host Alex Trebek announced his pancreatic cancer diagnosis and died the following year.) The fund has raised more than $200,000.

He was in second place with $16,800 entering the final round, which revolved around this question on current world leaders: “In office from 2022, the president of this country has taken so many foreign trips a play on his name is ‘Ferdinand Magellan Jr.'” Gupta was the only competitor with the correct answer, which was the Philippines. With a wager of $4,500, he walked away with $21,300 and advanced to the semifinals. The tournament ends March 9.

MAKING A MUSICAL IMPACT … A Palo Alto couple is proud to be involved with musicians who were honored at the 65th Grammy Awards Premiere Ceremony, which was held on Feb. 5.

Joe and Bette Hirsch got a shoutout from Nick Kendall, a member of the classically trained string group Time for Three, which won Best Classical Instrumental Solo for “Letters For The Future,” which was conducted by Xian Zhang and composed by Jennifer Higdon and Kevin Puts. “If you were to tell us back when we were practicing our Mozarts or Beethovens back in music school that we would be here on stage celebrating this work, we would’ve straight up laughed at you,” Kendall said in his acceptance speech.

The couple also was involved with Puts, a composer who won Best Contemporary Classical Composition for “Contact,” a collaboration with Zhang of Time for Three and The Philadelphia Orchestra. “We, along with six orchestras, co-commissioned Kevin’s composition and we, along with two other couples, underwrote the recording of the Grammy winning Time for Three ‘Letters for the Future’ album,” Joe Hirsch said in an email to the Weekly.