Little is left of the Fork N’ Pint on Cass Lake in Waterford Township, Michigan, after a massive fire on May 1 that instantly left around 30 members of the restaurant’s staff unemployed.

“We were in the parking lot at 7 a.m. watching our dreams burn,” William Schwab, operating manager at Fork N’ Pint, said.

Schwab and one of the co-owners of the restaurant, Doug Young, say that once the dust settled and their emotional state calmed after a few weeks, their main goal was to help out all of the hourly workers who were out of jobs. On Sunday, Billy’s Tip ‘n Inn in White Lake, a restaurant with no relationship to Fork N’ Pint, pitched in with a fundraiser for those employees.

“It’s awesome for the Fork N’ Pint hourly employees,” Tim White, the owner of Billy’s Tip ‘n Inn, said. “Our heart just went out to them when we heard about what happened, and my family’s got history in that building, and we just wanted to help out in any way we could, and this was the best way we could do it.”

“We’re stopping evictions with this event. There’s people losing their homes because of this fire,” Schwab said.

“So events like this [are] to get them some money, to make them feel good that the community did care. What they did in supporting them, and they’re trying to help. Emotionally, it’s very supportive,” Young said.

Hundreds of people came to Billy’s Sunday where all of the cover charges and 25 percent of the food and beverage sales will now be going directly to the Fork n’Pint hourly staff.

“The meat and the potatoes of this business is the staff, is the server that comes to your table, is the chef that cooks you your food. Even the kid that comes and grabs your plate when it’s dirty, that’s the heart of the business,” Schwab said.

There will be another fundraiser for Fork N’ Pint employees on June 18 at Santia Hall in Keego Harbor.