RACINE — Two years ago, Evodio Garcia had a dream of creating his own tree cutting business. He made that dream a reality with a lot of hard work and investing into expensive equipment to get his foot in the door to create Razor Sharp Tree Service.
A few days ago, thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment was stolen from his garage and Garcia says he was back at square one.
“$4,000 is a lot of money,” said Garcia. “It just doesn’t come overnight.”
Thanks to a generous community, it did, in a time where he needed it most.
“A lot of weight has just been lifted off my shoulders,” he told TMJ4.
Garcia made a call out to Facebook, created a Go Fund Me, and shared his story with TMJ4 News on Friday, all with the goal of raising the money needed to buy back his stolen gear.
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In one day, Garcia exceeded his goal by over one thousand dollars.
“I can’t believe it,” said Garcia. “It’s going to help me tremendously with getting my equipment back.”
Donations came from customers thanking him for his service and strangers who read about his story online.
His wife, Erin Suominen, was shocked to see the generosity pour in from strangers.
“He’s worked very hard to put into this business and he did take a big risk doing it,” said Suominen. “We still have bills and he still works another job, but this is his dream. It’s really, really heartwarming that strangers will help people like that.”
With a baby on the way, a birthday for their daughter this week and holidays around the corner for their family, Erin and Evodio have this to say to the kind strangers helping them through this rough patch:
“Thank you very much for your donation, I appreciate it, my family appreciates it, we all appreciate it. You helped us out tremendously and I just can’t thank you guys enough.”
