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Eddie Velasquez always dreamed of owning a bilingual coffee shop that brewed a sense of community alongside its cappuccinos.

When he opened DeJaBel Café in Wheaton last year, it quickly became the bustling, pumpkin-walled coffee shop he had imagined. But if Velasquez can't come up with $30,000 in back rent and late fees by Feb. 11, he'll have to shut his University Boulevard shop down.

The El Salvadorian immigrant has made no secret of his dire financial straits: The $5,500-a-month rent is too high, the foot traffic is too low and he doesn't have enough capital to ride out the storm, he'll tell any concerned customer who asks.

And almost every DeJaBel customer seems concerned. After visiting the coffee shop in January, a group of local high school and college students were motivated to action. They sent out a press release last month to local media announcing they were going to find a way to keep DeJaBel open. They also drag friends and each other to visit the shop, ask for donations, conduct word-of-mouth advertising and are trying to set up an online donation system, said Andre Mons, a Silver Spring resident and accounting major at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore who's involved in the project.

The group's organizer, Monica Buitrago, is an unemployed Silver Spring resident who volunteered in January to work pro-bono as DeJaBel's marketing manager. She created movie Mondays, trivia Tuesdays, Wii Wednesdays, wine Thursdays and open-mike Fridays as a way to rake in more revenue.

She's also started up meet-up and knitting groups, in which area residents can get to know each other over a cup of coffee and a sandwich.

True to DeJaBel's open atmosphere, a box requesting donations—and explaining why Velasquez needs them—sits adjacent to the cash register. Several $1, $5 and even a few $10s flutter in the bottom.

So why is the community putting so much effort into saving one out of a dozen struggling businesses?

" ... At this stage in the economy, I truly believe it is the only way we can help our neighbors out," Buitrago wrote in an e-mail.

And there are very few independent coffee shops in the area, notes Mons. The community wants to keep the one they have, he said.

On a recent Monday evening, Buitrago cranked up the volume on Velasquez's flat screen TV and pressed play on the DVD player resting on a chair nearby. The blurry ‘80s movie "Breaking 2: Electric Bugaloo," about a developer eager to knock down a community center to build a shopping mall, flashed on, and tables of coffee-drinkers leaned toward the screen.

Silver Spring resident Tricia George was there to watch the movie with a handful of area residents she met through Buitrago's meet up listserv. None of them knew each other before, but the movie night presented the perfect opportunity to chat about common interests in a safe environment, she said.

"I'm happy to not be sitting at a Starbucks," George said.

The shop looked crowded, but Buitrago said without movie night, it'd be desolate.

"Events are pretty much the draw for me," said Morgan Hoover, a Silver Spring resident who hugged Buitrago before seating himself with a steaming beverage in a cup adorned with red hearts for Valentine's Day. "I like to be able to do something, otherwise I could be just going to any old place or restaurant or café."

So far, the efforts have raised about $4,000, Velasquez said.

It'd be an eyebrow-arching amount in any other situation, but today the cash barely puts a dent in what he owes his landlord. Even if a miracle beneficiary swoops in and saves the day, Velasquez said it's likely he can't survive.

In more urban areas such as D.C., there's guaranteed foot traffic coffee shops like his can rely on.

"Here, I gotta create the market," he said, pouring himself a glass of wine. "There's no market for a coffee shop."

In July, he struggled again to pay rent and made the deadline only after offering DeJaBel memberships — $100 for a free daily cup of coffee; $300 for a free daily specialty drink; and a $500 option no one actually purchased. He'd like to start mailing out community advertisements in February, but that may be too late.

After 18 months of struggling, Buitrago and Velasquez admit the closure of DeJaBel seems imminent. Velasquez is looking for another county site to continue the caffeinated community tradition.

"I wish there was something I could do, but I don't have any money," said Rachel Bender, a longtime Wheaton resident who at one point in her life worked as a barista for Starbucks.

Bender said she's seen one too many independent coffee shops — "community centers," really — close these past few years.

"This is the best place in Maryland," she said of DeJaBel. " ... It's just so much more than a place to get a coffee or a sandwich or a beer. It literally creates community."