Mark and Donna Paz Kaufman, owners of Story & Song Bookstore Bistro in Amelia Island, Fla., have established a not-for-profit arts organization called the Story & Song Center for Arts & Culture.
According to the Fernandina Observer, the support Story & Song received during the pandemic inspired the bookstore's owners to create the nonprofit, which allows the couple to "leave all we've worked hard for to the private operating foundation to ensure that Story & Song remains as our gift to the community long after we're gone."
Community events and arts programming have been a major part of Story & Song since its founding in 2018, and book clubs, author talks, TED talks, film nights, children's storytime sessions and more have been free for community members. During the pandemic many of those programs went virtual, and Story & Song did fundraisers in partnership with the Nassau County Boys & Girls Club and started hosting music lessons with Arts Alive Nassau.
"Each day people would ask how Story & Song was faring during the tremendous challenge of surviving the pandemic, and we listened to people tell us how much Story & Song had come to mean to them personally," Donna Paz Kaufman said.