Management has yet to determine what to do with the Georgia Theatre after a fire burned away more than $1.7 million of the building, but the Athens community has rallied behind the staff who lost their jobs.

Though the cause of the June 19 fire is still undetermined, staff are remaining active.

“I haven’t even really dealt with the fact that the Georgia Theatre isn’t there,” said Katie Carmody, hospitality and office manager for the Theatre. “Dealing with the loss of this place is really a lot, it’s going to be intense for a lot of people.”

Since the fire, Carmody has been organizing several charity events raising money for the people who have suddenly found themselves jobless.

“Through these fund raising efforts we’ve been able to pay a month’s worth of payroll for the entire staff,” Carmody said.

The night of the fire, Brock Butler, guitarist and lead singer for the Athens-based band Perpetual Groove, played a fund raising concert with other local musicians. The following night, the entire band, already scheduled to play in the now-torched theatre, put on a show at the Classic Center.

Benjamin Ferguson, manager of Perpetual Groove, said the Classic Center show raised more than $3,000.

“Given the short notice of the concert we’re extremely happy about it,” he said.

“Our focus was on raising money for the staff who were now out of a job,” Ferguson said. “They’ve always been extremely nice — everyone from the security down to the box office.”

Ferguson said the band, who played the theatre regularly, was “pretty shook up.”

“There’s definitely an air of depression hanging over it,” he said. “It’s a devastating blow.”

Despite the shock, the band is in the process of planning more fund raiser shows for the theatre, Ferguson said.

Carmody said that to the staff, the fund raising concerts are about more than money. “It’s a way for our staff to go out and to be reminded that the community is thinking about us and they want us to survive and be successful,” she said. And the staff will have plenty of opportunity to get out. In addition to the two Perpetual Groove shows and a concert at the Melting Point, the Morton Theatre will be hosting the AthFest shows scheduled for the Georgia Theatre and raising money with commemorative shirts.

Haywood Thomas, owner of Old Guard Graphics, the company producing the shirts, said so far they have been a huge success.

“Since Saturday afternoon we’ve sold over 500 shirts,” he said. “Pretty much all the profits from the project are going to the theatre.”

Thomas said his company had already been in contact with the theatre designing a 20th anniversary shirt.

“That morning [of the fire,] we talked to them and mentioned it as an idea as a fund raiser,” he said. “We reworked the design, and it pretty much went out right then.”

In addition to being available at the shows, shirts are up for available online at Thomas’s Web site, www.oldguardgraphics.com, and at Schoolkids Records downtown.

Carmody said she was glad to have shirts and concerts to worry about.

“I just want to make sure I can do everything I can to help,” she said. “The process of figuring out how to deal with everything is so complex. We’re just taking it one step at a time.”