When a Toronto cobbler found out the 60-year-old patching and stitching machine he needs to run his business had broken, he assumed the worst — repairing it would cost $10,000 that he didn’t have, and without it, he would have to close down his business. But when the local Dufferin Grove community heard the news, they were determined to help. On Monday, one GoFundMe and almost $16,000 later, Alazar Beyene, owner of Moneysworth and Best Quality Shoe Care, got his machine.
It was local resident Marsha Shandur who first learned about the broken machine from Beyene when she visited his store at Dufferin Mall for another shoe repair. “I said, ‘Why don’t we start a fundraiser, put a link online so that people can donate?’” And he said, ‘Is this legal?’”
Shandur set up the GoFundMe on Beyene’s behalf a few days later, sharing it to a neighbourhood Facebook group and raising around $1,500. But it was when Shandur made a TikTok and Instagram video about the situation that things “completely blew up.”
“I was getting comments from the Tragically Hip and the Arkells and Haviah Mighty, and people were all saying they were going to take their shoes there,” she says. “I think it was just the feel-good news story that people needed.”
Shandur says Beyene and his daughters told her about how he had a shoe making business back in Ethiopia, but when he moved to Canada due to the war, he came with nothing.
“He used to have to get up at 4 a.m. to rent someone else’s machine because he couldn’t afford his own machine to fix shoes,” Shandur says.
The patching and repair machine he ended up buying was a secondhand one from the 1960s, so it’s no surprise it eventually broke down.
After Shandur’s videos went viral, the GoFundMe quickly hit and surpassed its target. Currently at $15,589, she and Beyene agreed to donated any excess funds to the Maquila Solidarity Network, a non-profit fighting for the rights of garment and footwear workers.
And on Monday, Shandur and Councillor Alejandra Bravo were there for the big reveal: Beyene unveiled his brand new machine.
It comes at the right time, too — since his story went viral, Beyene’s shop at Dufferin Mall has been seeing long lines of customers, even during the winter months when Beyene says the business is usually “dead.”
You can visit Moneysworth and Best Quality Shoe Care and Beyene’s new machine at the mall; his store is located all the way down a small corridor directly to the left of H&M.
