Irene Benefit

While helping out friends who were effected by Irene, I witnessed some amazing people-power. Complete strangers offering to pitch-in on the efforts: people covered in mud while digging out basements, people dropping-by to offer food, water and Ben & Jerry’s, and otherwise complete strangers befriending their fellow Vermonters. The list could go on for pages…

Being a Vermonter, I had the same urge to help. Yes, helping to clean up the mud and debris was cathartic on many levels, but I wanted to do more. I stumbled across a quote that had been circulating around the internet. It struck a chord. So much so, that it brought me to tears (still kinda does.) It just spoke to the unique qualities of Vermonters, and amazed me that almost 85 years later, that it still rings true. This quote is by President Calvin Coolidge, a native Vermonter, and is part of a speech he gave in 1927 after seeing the recovery from the flooding in his “brave little state of Vermont.” See full quote here.

And that is how this t-shirt came about. I was inspired to create, and inspired to help. Creighton Vogt, owner of Deerfield Designs, was generous enough to print the tees at cost. I then had to make the very hard decision as to WHO the proceeds would go to. But then I read an article from VTDigger (here) and a blog post from fellow VBSR member Zack Luby of Good Stuff Communications (here.)

To quote Vermont Digger, “Never before have so many Vermont farms suffered damages at once; according to Vern Grubinger at the University of Vermont, vegetable farms alone have sustained at least $1.5 million in losses.”

Enough said, right?
If you are interested in supporting, please buy a shirt. They are available online through my website, and at Three Squares Café in Vergennes.
Of the $15 cost, $11 of those dollars goes directly to the cause. Click here to purchase, or contact me if you are interested in helping to sell these unique tees.