As small businesses across the country continue their pandemic-era struggles and try to make things work, one entrepreneur is putting his money toward helping those who have suffered a double dose of misfortune.

Camping World CEO Marcus Lemonis has launched the Nashville 30 Day Fund and donated $500,000 to help Nashville businesses affected in the Christmas Day bombing. Dozens of buildings in downtown Nashville were damaged when an RV exploded in the early morning hours on Dec. 25.

“I would like to get a list of every local business that got wiped out from the explosion in Nashville. We will work together to provide solutions as a group … and find the funds necessary to rebuild and reopen #NashvilleStrong please help me put this together,” he wrote Saturday in the first of a series of tweets about the explosion.

The nonprofit will create a working group that will offer “cash/funding” as well as advice regarding insurance and real estate. Lemonis added that much of the money would cover clean-up and repairs.

“We’re just trying to provide something and if you can help us support this effort we’d appreciate it,” he said in a video posted Wednesday. “Those funds will go directly to those affected.”

According to the nashville30dayfund.com site, those eligible include small businesses and Nashville residents within a half-mile radius of the explosion site.

“The funds disbursed by the Nashville 30 Day fund do not need to be repaid. If individuals or businesses who receive the Fund’s assistance do, at a later date, wish to ‘pay it forward’ to another individual or business in need of assistance, they may do so by directing those dollars back to the Fund, which will disburse the funding to another recipient.”

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