Paying It Forward

I read a quote that said, "You cannot live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you".

Our family has lived under a cloud for almost three years. When Paige was hurt, people from all over (many of whom we'd never met and still haven't) came together and raised and donated funds to help our family. Many we will never know of their names. I've said repeatedly that you never truly know humble until you've been on the receiving end of charity. It knocks you straight to your knees and you feel you'll never rise again. We've struggled to find a way to pay it forward.

When the recent tornado passed by us without harm, we knew we were blessed. None of us at this household really knew how fortunate we really were. Kane used his chainsaw the first and second day with some boys from the college and came home to tell me, "It's bad, Mom, it's really bad". Kane has been to hell and back with us, so he recognizes bad.

Within 10 hours of the storm, we received calls from Los Angeles asking us to print t-shirts for Team Rubicon. They are a disaster team that is supported solely from a grant from Google that sends teams of (hot and young) men to areas of devastation. This was followed by other charitable teams from all over within the same night.

A good friend of mine (David) who's printed t-shirts in Georgia and Florida for 42 years called and said we should print a tornado t-shirt. Being only able to process one thing at a time, I dismissed it and went about artwork for these teams.

The following morning, David called and said, "I'm going to approach this a little differently. Let me tell you a story about Hurricane Andrew. The screen printers from all over this country set up shop on every corner selling I Survived Hurricane Andrew t-shirts and left with our money just as quickly as they came. Even if you don't make a cent, Amy, you can be a part of the solution or you can sit back and watch it happen, and it will happen".

Being the pissy playground bully that I am, my first thought was, "Oh, no, they will not come swooping in here like vultures and rob from the people in my backyard." It was at that moment that I literally THREW TOGETHER the art for the tornado tees. All I could think of was that when Paige was hurt, it was repeated to me, "This too shall pass, Amy". It has not passed, but has gotten easier, one day at a time.

We do A LOT of business with Gallatin County, they are our people. And they are good people. We do a lot of business with Harrisburg. They, too, are our people. Apparently, I make men nervous when I use a chainsaw, but I can print a t-shirt.

Once we decided to do this and saw that it was going to be more than just a hundred or so t-shirts, I got on the horn to my favorite t-shirt vendor, Virginia Ts.

This company is run by a woman. She is taking care of her family, very much like I try to mine. I have "whored" myself out to this woman and asked that if she were to be compassionate with us on just the orange, white and gray t-shirts for the tornado shirts this one time, even if it were only pennies, that I would pledge every cent of my future business to her company. Her response was, "what kind of a ass would I be now if I didn't?". Just the response I was looking for.

The average cost of the t-shirts for the tornado shirts blank runs right above $2 each. The bigger sizes are running about $3.56 each. We decided that EVERY NICKEL that we raise on these shirts shall go right back to the respective counties unto which a t-shirt was purchased.

We don't count the money, it goes into a brown grocery sack labeled either Gallatin or Saline on it. The finest ladies in the land at Peoples National Bank are sorting through all those checks and cash. Some businesses from Saline and Gallatin County (Miller's Army Surplus, J. Bacher Jewelers, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Integrated Health, TK Brown Signs and Mimmo's Pizza) have offered to sell these shirts out of their stores so that we may continue to take care of clients who pay our water bill and put food on our table. Without them, we would have drowned by now. Please say thank you to those people, who are so unselfishly doing so.

We've had CBS Sports here on the property out of New York, Evansville Courier, CNN called out of Atlanta, Saint Louis Dispatch, Daily Register and the Associated Press. We've told them each the same thing, "Please do not rob our family of the chance to pay back what was done for us. Even by indirect advertising, that would be taken from us." Paige told a man from the AP that, "You get what you give". She and I spoke briefly with the Evansville Courier and Richard Gootee. The outpouring of phone calls from the Southern Indiana area is amazing.

I guess I post this blog with the hope that people will understand (although I know many won't and will turn a positive into a negative) that we do this for us. We do this as a selfish act to lift this cloud from above us. The ONLY cost coming out of that $10 donation is the actual cost of the blank t-shirt itself. Every cent of money for inks, screens, emulsions, bags, food, drinks, etc has come from our pocket. We could have very easily handed that money over as a donation and been done with it. Instead, we've chosen to take our little donation and with the help of SO MANY PEOPLE turn it into a bigger one.

There are many volunteers here now. There are donations pouring in and help in abundance. Down the road, when the cameras leave, when the new wears off, or worse, when something worse happens somewhere else, it is then that the powers that be will be able to see who really had property insurance, who really had a hidey-hole and who is really in need of help. We hope that then is when all the donations that have come in will benefit those just like us, THE WORKING POOR.

In conclusion (that's what every good speech teacher taught me), I hope that people really do see the good in this and not try to pick it apart and make it something ugly. Now, the responsibility rests upon all of those in Gallatin and Saline Counties to pay it forward down the road, hopefully like we have.