Florida Bar Donates 14,000 Dollar Bills From its Walls to Hurricane Dorian Relief

After a month of carefully removing dollar bills from the walls and ceiling in its Sarasota, FL bar, the Siesta Key Oyster Bar is donating nearly $14,000 to help with Hurricane Dorian relief in the Bahamas.

Last month the island was ravaged by a Category 5 hurricane that left more than 50 people dead.

“The videos came out and we all saw how horrific things are there,” Kristin Hale, the bar’s general manager, told The Washington Post. “What happened to those people is unbelievable. It gives you the chills.”

Customers have been stapling cash to the walls of the bar ever since it opened 16 years ago. According to employees, the practice stems from an old fisherman’s tradition in which seamen would staple a dollar to the wall on their way out to the sea. That way, they always had money for drinks when they returned.

This isn’t the first time the bar has used money peeled from its walls to give back. Every few years, the owners donate a couple of thousand to a local charity.

This time, sisters and co-owners of the bar, Jill Pedigo and Beth Owen-Cipielewski, decided the money would go to the Red Cross to help those affected by the hurricane.

“The owners are huge into giving back,” Hale said.