On May 31, California’s Santa Monica Music, owned by Lana Fernandez Negrete, was looted. A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the store, which can be found here.

Negrete made this emotional Facebook post on June 1. “My heart is broken – I am sick to my stomach- my knees are weak – I feel helpless. Then, insurance says this is considered an act of GOD!!!! So it will most likely not be covered …. I can’t explain what it feels like to watch your family business – your business you worked so hard for be trashed in seconds….I know it’s just stuff – but unless you are a small struggling business owner you can’t imagine the pain. I’m buckled at the knees I can’t stop crying – screaming at them to stop and having friends stand outside my shop until guns were drawn on them ….what is happening??! We have instruments stored from Smmusd – UCLA – LAUSD – CCUSD – we do so much for the community this just doesn’t feel right!!!! It hurts! Your hurting the wrong people damn it!”

For 50 years, Santa Monica Music has been serving the Santa Monica-Malibu school district diligently.
Negrete serves on the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) Visual and Performing Arts District Advisory Committee, and her store, Santa Monica Music Center, is the vendor selected by the district for repairs, maintenance of district instruments and materials and supplies. Negrete also leads a nonprofit called “Outreach Through the Arts” whose core purpose is to provide scholarship lessons for qualifying SMMUSD students.

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