Help your county businesses and show your support for them with a T-shirt from #SanJuanStrong. Jackalope Trading Company co-owner Melinda Redd spotted a piece from the Wagoner County American-Tribune paper recently. A friend had posted it on Facebook. The story was about a Coweta Oklahoma printing company that made much of its income off printing of church bulletins, flyers for festivals and other gatherings that are on hold during the attempt to plateau Covid-19 numbers. The owner of the Oklahoma company came up with a campaign to sell t-shirts with the logos of local companies on them. He would print the shirts and take half of the $20 cost passing the other half on to the business printed on the shirt.
Mindy took the idea and working with local printer Bear Skins Custom Ink to orchestrate a grass roots stimulus package is putting your money where it will do some good. Bear Skins set a goal of raising $10,000 for local small businesses in the next 30 days.
A quick Q and A with Mindy played out like this:
SJC EDVS: Where does the money go?
Mindy: $10 from every shirt sold goes to that particular business. So when someone buys a Jackalope shirt, the Jackalope gets $10. The other $10 goes to Bear Skins to cover their costs and keep them going a bit as well. So every shirt purchased helps two SJC businesses!
SJC EDVS: And what do they do with it?
Mindy: Right now, it's about supporting local businesses who are struggling. The Jackalope closed our doors to in-person shopping on March 21st, and honestly have only had a few "virtual" sales coming in. This virus has pretty much killed our Spring shopping season, which had just started to pick up. For us, the money will go to monthly bills (that don't go away when we're closed) and if there's any left, maybe we can spend it at a local restaurant or two.
SJC EDVS: Who saw the piece in the Coweta paper and thought this was a good fit for San Juan?
Mindy: That was me. A couple of my life-long friends live in Coweta, and posted the article on Facebook. I read the article, contacted the owner of the print shop, and started talking to friends about the possibility of doing the same fundraiser here. Luckily Bear Skins was all for it and we appreciate all the work they've done to make this happen.
To buy a shirt visit: https://bearskinstshirts.com/san_juan_strong
If you’re a business interested in participating contact Cindy Bayles [email protected] or
Melinda Redd: [email protected]