Rosati Ice really didn’t want to furlough its 20 workers even though business has slowed with the pandemic, so it started a GoFundMe page to keep workers on the payroll through the slow season, writes Peg DeGrass for the Daily Times.

Between Labor Day and March, the 100-year-old company does a lot of business, about 90 percent, with the schools. With normal school schedules in tatters, that business has slowed to about 30 percent.

For the first time since 1997, owner Rich Trotter had to furlough some workers this fall. Others, including Trotter, took pay cuts.

Trotter is asking for the community’s help through a GoFundMe crowdsourcing page to bridge the gap until spring, when the non-school business picks up.

The page has already raised more than $15,000.  The goal is to raise $300,000, or 100,000 cups of water ice.

For every $3 donated, a cup of waster ice will go to a hospital, nursing home or other facility that serves veterans.

Trotter is a West Point graduate.  His son’s an Army captain, and warehouse manager Louis DiGiacomo is a Purple Heart Marine.

“You give to us and we pay it forward,” Trotter says on the GoFundMe page.

Read more about Rosati’s Water Ice GoFundMe campaign at the Daily Times.

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