Hello, I'm Natalie Dubose of Ferguson, Missouri. I'm a small business owner with a cake shop and a bakery dream. 
 
 
 
 First, I would thank everyone for their warm wishes, empathy, and support during this crazy difficult time. 
 
 
 
 I would love to write more, and will try soon, but my business is so behind right now. 
 
 
 
 My shop, which had it's grand opening this summer was vandalized in the riots. 
 
 
 
 My main windows were smashed and bakery damaged. I'm beside myself, but with the holidays, can't stop working. 
 
 
 
 I'm very busy cleaning and trying to repair my business. I'm also trying to catchup on baking cakes for Thanksgiving! 
 
 
 
 I promise to update this later. I'm truly mixing batter right now. I began baking and selling cakes at local flea markets, slowly saving money to start my small business. 
 
 
 
 I LOVE TO BAKE !!! 
 
 
 
 It was my dream and I'm working hard to accomplish that dream. 
 
 
 
 The outpouring of support on Twitter, Facebook, and in the media has been amazing. I was in tears. 
 
 
 
 It was suggested that I start a Gofundme account by a new friend. She created it and here it is. I do need help to rebuild and create a website, so any donations would be a huge assistance. 
 
 
 
 I'm not sure where to find the money to repair my little bakery. But, even if you just stopped by to say hello. Thank You !!!! 
 
 
 
 I've never felt such love. 
 
 
 
 Thank You !!! 
 
 
 
 Natalie 
 
 
 
 
 
 Contact me on: 
 
 
 
 Twitter @Ferg_Natalie or 
 
 Facebook as Natalie's Cakes and More 
 
 
 
 Website coming soon ! 
 
 
 
 
 
 (campaign created by Kristine Froeba, updates dictated by Natalie) 
 
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 When you tweet with a location, Twitter stores that location. You can switch location on/off before each Tweet and always have the option to delete your location history. Learn more ||||| Natalie DuBose weeps outside her Natalie’s Cakes and More bakery Monday, Nov. 24, 2014, after vandals broke one of two large windows in her store after a grand jury declined to indict white police officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown. DuBose’s bakery is a black-owned business supported by the protesters. (AP Photo/St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Robert Cohen) 
 
 Even in the best of times, survival rates for small businesses don’t inspire loads of confidence. Fifty percent of them close after four years. 
 
 But Natalie DuBose of Ferguson, Mo., did not open her shop in the best of times. She opened Natalie’s Cakes and More in downtown Ferguson in June. In August, police officer Darren Wilson, who is white, shot and killed an unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown. 
 
 The city erupted. 
 
 DuBose’s customer base evaporated. She went two weeks without a single person walking into her shop, she told local media. Then things turned around. After interviews with local radio and television stations, her community turned out to support her business. 
 
 “By the time I got back from [local radio station] KMOX, I had people outside the door,” she told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. What’s more, they kept coming. The single mother of two, who raised the funds to open her shop by selling her cakes at a flea market, could breathe a little easier. 
 
 Then, this week, DuBose was faced with another crisis. After news broke that a grand jury would not charge Wilson, rioters broke the glass of her storefront Monday night. They damaged baking equipment. 
 
 “It feels like it’s a movie that’s taking place,” DuBose said in an interview with St. Louis’s KTVI. “It’s just unbelievable, and I can’t believe it happened to my shop.” 
 
 The vandalism hit DuBose particularly hard because she’s now squeezed to fill orders for Thanksgiving. She went back to her shop and boarded it up. 
 
 DuBose’s neighbors rallied to support her again. Two GoFundMe campaigns to raise money to repair DuBose’s shop surpassed her goal within hours, with over $76,000 in total flowing to both. Celebrities Patricia Heaton and Brandi Glanville encouraged their Twitter followers to give the working mom a boost. Others have offered to help her take calls and fill orders. Another offered to build her a Web site for free. 
 
 What happened to DuBose’s shop, and the subsequent action to help her rebuild, sits at a crossroads when it comes to interpreting the actions of Ferguson rioters. There are those who say there are larger, systemic, institutional forces at work. Many, including Congressman John Lewis (D-Ga.), who was among those who led the fight for voting rights in the South, called Ferguson a “turning point” for civil rights, not unlike the march to Selma. DuBose is affected on a microeconomic level and was dealt very real hits, but is also caught in the crux of something much, much larger than herself — or even Ferguson. 
 
 One fund was started by David Swingle, who retweeted this message and other similar ones: “Congrats Ferguson! You proved to the world you’re the RACIST ghetto trash we knew you were!” It was accompanied by a picture filled with more text that read: “HEY, FERGUSON! The entire country is sick of your s—. Sick of the lawlessness, sick of the riots, sick of the threats and demands. The only thing you’ve managed to accomplish in all of this is to live up to the ghetto stereotypes. Congratulations.” In a conversation with another user, blaming the media for the riots and damage to DuBose’s shop, he wrote, “Send the bill to [Jesse] Jackson, [Al] Sharpton, and [Attorney General Eric H.] Holder. They stoked these flames from the beginning. GoFundMe for Ms. DuBose?” Later in his timeline, Swingle began tweeting links to the GoFundMe page he started to help the Ferguson baker. 
 
 Others, including professor and New Yorker contributor Jelani Cobb, have been reluctant to outright condemn the violent acts that have taken place in Ferguson. Appearing of “On Point” with Tom Ashbrook Tuesday night, Cobb said, “I think the riots happened because people feel they’ve exhausted all other mechanisms for being heard. For someone who has no reason to doubt that the legal system is capable of producing a just outcome for them, then the behavior does appear to be irrational. But the honest truth of the matter is that this country is rooted in riots. The American revolution was born out of what began as disparate riots responding to British policy. This is not as though these people are completely out of their minds, they have no sense. What they believe is that the system here does not represent them. … There is a context for this.” 
 
 DuBose has chosen to stay out of the political fray, but she is very much committed to Ferguson. 
 
 “I’ve invested everything into my business,” DuBose said. “I can’t go anywhere. I’m not going to go anywhere.” ||||| The owner of a bakery in Ferguson, Missouri, said she is in awe of the support she received after rioters on Monday smashed the windows and damaged some kitchen equipment in her small shop. 
 
 Natalie DuBose, a 32-year-old mother of two, owns Natalie's Cake's & More at 100 S. Florissant Rd., which opened in early June. DuBose told NBC News Wednesday that baking and cake decorating have always been a passion, but they didn't become a full-time job until earlier this year, when she finally saved enough to open her store. 
 
 "Everything that I invested, it came from me saving money through bake sales. Sometimes I couldn't buy a pair of tennis shoes because I wanted to make sure I had enough money to buy a bucket of icing," she said. "It was an investment all around. I always had to work at least two jobs. I never just had just one job because my dream was always to have my own bakery." 
 
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 The cake shop wasn't spared when violent protests erupted on Monday, triggered by a grand jury decision not to indict a white Ferguson police officer for killing unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in August. 
 
 “ I did a lot of sacrificing on my own in order to get things, that’s why I am determined that I am not going anywhere. I’ve invested so much and my heart is in this.” 
 
 DuBose said her heart sank when she surveyed the damage. "Hurt is the only word I could really describe," she said. "I was like, 'Wow, you guys really just didn't care, you didn't care, and this affects whether I can feed my children or not, and you just bust through the window with a chair.'" 
 
 A friend suggested she start an online campaign to raise funds to clean up and repair her bakery, but DuBose was taken aback by the response she got. By late Wednesday, the GoFundMe campaign raised nearly $200,000. 
 
 "I am so grateful and appreciate it. I just cant express it," she said. "People have been showing love through the phone, leaving prayers, leaving songs — it's been absolutely amazing." 
 
 The store was packed around lunch time on Wednesday. Natalie's Cakes and More is a small bake shop on South Florrisant Road that was damaged during the riots on Monday. In the past 21 hours, the store has raised over $111,000 through a GoFundMe campaign. Andrew Renneisen / for NBC News 
 
 Many area business owners are debating whether to keep their stores open after the second round of violent riots this year, but DuBose said she is determined to stay, because the bakery is "like a baby." 
 
 And she couldn't quit even if she wanted to, as orders for the holidays are piling up. DuBose said she received 50 orders for Thanksgiving and has seen more customers than ever. 
 
 "I did a lot of sacrificing on my own in order to get things, that's why I am determined that I am not going anywhere. I've invested so much and my heart is in this," she said.
– There were times when Natalie DuBose didn't have enough money to buy new sneakers as she scrimped and saved to start a bakery in Ferguson, Mo.: She worked two jobs and held bake sales to make her dream come true in June, when she finally opened the doors to Natalie's Cakes and More, NBC News reports. So the mom of two was totally devastated when rioters seriously damaged her shop on Monday, breaking windows and vandalizing kitchen equipment, after the no-indictment decision for Darren Wilson was handed down. "Hurt is the only word I could really describe," she tells NBC. "I was like, 'Wow, you guys really just didn't care, you didn't care, and this affects whether I can feed my children or not." A friend mentioned she should try to raise money to keep her business alive, but DuBose wasn't prepared for the overwhelming kindness of strangers that happened next. Celebrities like Patricia Heaton and Brandi Glanville asked their Twitter followers to support DuBose, while other people volunteered to help her take calls, fulfill orders, and even build her a website as holiday orders started to bombard her, the Washington Post reports. Her GoFundMe page has raised more than $218,000 as of this morning (a second page set up by friends has pulled in another $10,000-plus). The single mom tells NBC that she's set on keeping her bakery open—even as other area businesses shutter for good—because it's "like a baby" to her. "I am so grateful. … It's been absolutely amazing," she says. "I did a lot of sacrificing on my own in order to get things, that's why I am determined that I am not going anywhere." (Strangers also helped keep a Boston college student in school.)