AMHERST — A successful online fundraiser is ensuring that Ren’s Sales and Service, a gas station and repair shop that has been a mainstay of downtown Amherst, will remain in business.
“It means all the world to me,” Reynold Gladu said Thursday morning from inside the office at the 161 North Pleasant St. business he has run since July 1973. “This is a special community that responded to a long-term member. I think it’s phenomenal.”
The GoFundMe initiative was launched in late August and exceeded a revised $65,000 goal that will allow Reynold Gladu and his son, Jeff, to keep the business afloat by paying legal fees associated with breaking a contract with a previous gas supplier, replenishing assets and avoiding any potential foreclosure on the property.
“The community support was absolutely tremendous,” said Jeff Gladu, who runs Ren’s alongside his father. “Things are going to be better now because we have so much support from the community.”
The fundraiser was organized by residents Nancy deProsse, Bob DiCarlo and Lisa Musante, and Gladu’s daughter Jennifer Gladu-Howe.
Sharon Howard of Greenleaves Drive was among those contributing, calling Ren’s “service with integrity.” “A loss of his station would be a huge disservice to this community,” Howard said.
“He’s the real deal, what Amherst town center should be more about: friendly local businesses,” said Jeff Lacy of Shutesbury.
Since the significant problems with the viability of the business became public after Reynold Gladu objected to selling gas for nearly $5 a gallon earlier this year, Jeff Gladu said more people have been dropping by for car repairs and oil changes, and to buy gas, even though the business is currently only able to accept cash payments at the pumps.
While Reynold Gladu said he is proud and would have preferred not to take charity from residents, once the fundraiser began he saw how important his business is to Amherst.