REGULARS who rallied round by staging a fundraising musical jam session at their pub after a thief stole an entire day’s takings have collected almost £1,500.
Edinburgh Arms publicans Dave and Lorraine Clark were said to have been ‘heartbroken’ after a thief stole their entire day’s takings as they were closing up for the night on January 27.
To make things worse, the thief also walked off with Dave’s phone.
Regulars decided they had to do something.
Tracey Godfrey set up a GoFundMe page – and her partner, local musician Malcolm McCafferty, set about organising a fund-raising musical bash.
About 100 people turned up at the pub on Sunday afternoon for the jam - probably half of them musicians, Malcolm said.
It turned into an afternoon of spontaneous music-making that raised the rafters, he said.
“I was pointing to people and saying ‘you, you, you – get up on stage and play something!”
More than 400 raffle tickets were sold – and that, together with money raised through Tracey’s GoFundMe page, saw the total raised for Dave and Lorraine hit £1,460, Malcolm said.
That was without the bar takings on Sunday afternoon – which were massively up because of the big crowd.
“We reckon they’ve got more than £2,000 altogether that they wouldn’t have had otherwise!” Malcolm said.
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He said the Edinburgh Arms was a true community pub – and regulars had been desperate to help Dave and Lorraine out.
On her Go Fund Me page, Tracey commented: “After a very busy day (on January 27), an opportunist thief walked into the Edinburgh Arms in York and stole the day’s takings.
“The landlord and landlady Dave and Lorraine do a fantastic job in the community.
“After just getting back on an even keel after covid, this happens. Let's show our appreciation and give something back for this lovely hardworking couple.”
Malcolm added: “They do such a lot for the local community – for charity, for children, for elderly people, for musicians!
“They really, really didn’t deserve what happened. We just wanted to do something for them.”
He said the couple had been blown away by what their regulars did.
“They were completely taken aback!” he said.
"It was our way of saying 'thank you for keeping this little community place together - thank you for everything you do!"
To donate to the Edinburgh Arms GoFundMe page, visit gofundme.com/f/theft-at-the-edinburgh-arms
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