‘In this together’

As small business sales stalled or came to a halt because of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, one local business jumped on the idea of helping others while keeping his business afloat.

“We were all kind of closed and we were all sitting there kind of wondering what was going to happen. We had no idea what was going to happen,” said Brian Zachary, co-owner of Create Creston.

Zachary, who runs a screen-printing service out of Create Creston on Maple Street, which he co-owns with his wife Jean Weisshaar, said he was approached with an idea by Lisa Sawtelle, who suggested they start a T-Shirt fundraiser. Sawtelle had noticed a Facebook post by a T-shirt screen-printing business in Kearney, Nebraska, which was offering to make business T-Shirts with a portion of the proceeds going directly back to participating businesses.

“I said, ‘Wow. Yes. I can totally do that,’” said Zachary. “We were already in the retail apocalypse. It was already in progress when this happened. I’m really afraid it (coronavirus) is going to kill businesses in Creston. My hope was kind of to address that by giving these businesses a little bit of money, but also provide some promotion for them and keep their logo in people’s minds even though they were closed, or half open for take-out or curb service or whatever.”

Nationally, a third of small businesses are expected to close due to the pandemic.

“We can’t afford to lose a third of Creston’s businesses,” said Zachary. “That really worried me.”

Zachary said businesses do not have to put together a minimum order, business owners can simply tell their friends and family.

“It keeps my people working, it keeps Blake (Fry-Schnormeier) working,” said Zachary.

The T-shirt fundraiser started in April. In the fundraiser’s first two months, 13 Creston businesses have participated and nearly 150 shirts have been made, in which $745 was distributed to the participating businesses May 31. Two additional businesses signed up this week and the fundraiser is expected to run until the end of August.

Zachary said $5 of each T-shirt, which are sold at $15 each, is given to the business. Create Creston makes $6 of each sale.

The thought was to originally sell shirts for $20, but Zachary said he didn’t want to appear to be a profiteer. He just wanted to do what he could to help keep his business and fellow businesses afloat.

“Not getting rich on these shirts, but it keeps my people moving,” said Zachary.

The T-shirt fundraiser does not cost participating businesses anything.

“They just send me a logo and they get a check for $5 per shirt,” said Zachary. “It’s really easy. I don’t want anything from them. I want to help them.”

The T-shirt fundraiser is for Creston businesses only.

“I’ve had offers to do stuff for other communities, but I’m not looking to make a ton of money on this. I really just want to focus my efforts on Creston.

Creston businessess wishing to participate in Create Creston's T-shirt fundraiser, visit www.createcreston.com to place an order.