PRAIRIEVILLE - Customers and friends of the Cottage Inn bar located in Prairieville came out on Saturday to hold a fundraiser to help keep the neighborhood bar from going out of business.

"It's so heart touching, words can't even describe how good it is," Tonja Harden, the owner of Cottage Inn said.

Except for two weeks, the bar has been shut down since March when the virus pandemic hit Louisiana, and the stay-at-home order was put into place.

"If it stays closed for another two months, three months, I don't think I can stay afloat, Harden said"

The Cottage Inn first opened as a grocery store back in the 1950s.

Harden and her father, James Rawls took over about 20 years ago when it was already a bar.

The business had a total of six employees, who are now out of work.

"These people here, need their jobs. She's got employees who are not making any money," Rawls said.

Customers and friends held a jambalaya sale and raffle for a big screen to help the bar stay open.

It will be at least two and a half weeks before the Cottage Inn will know if it can reopen by then.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

The COVID-19 positivity rate is slightly above 5% in Ascension Parish.

That figure must be 5% or less, for two consecutive weeks for bars to reopen in the parish.