Community Corner

'Restore the Shore' Campaign Hits $20K Donation Mark

Shirts are still available for purchase, and the first batch will be available for pickup on Haddon Avenue this Saturday during (and after) the Collingswood Holiday Parade.

It’s been 20 days since Red Dog Glass subsidiary Lil' Diesel Designs debuted its “Restore the Shore” T-shirt, and the orders still keep rolling in—at about a $1,000 per day rate.

For a small, Collingswood-based relief effort, that’s translated into $20,250 that will be heading to Red Cross relief efforts.

“Obviously the disaster was weeks ago, but we’re hoping that local people and other people who were affected across the country continue, two months from now, six months from now, a year from now, that it’ll just keep pushing,” said Mindy Leher of Red Dog Glass.

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Although it’s been nearly a month since Post-Tropical Cyclone Sandy hit, towns up and down the eastern seaboard are still recovering from its impact, she said, and relief efforts must continue apace.

“We’re going to keep pushing it as long as we can,” she said. “We’ve got about 14 boxes of t-shirts that are going to get packaged and shipped.”

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Leher said she and Lil' Diesel's Jen Hilgenberg were “pretty excited about the support we’ve gotten so far,” even getting offers to help stuff and mail packages from “complete strangers.”

Leher said that the whole experience is “giving us a vision” for ways to leverage the business for other community groups that want to piggyback onto the relief effort. An alumni group from the Haddonfield Class of 1967 purchased some 200 shirts for that purpose, and the company also shipped a bulk order to members of the New York Jets, “which is awesome,” she said.

“We are more than happy to take on more people if they want to use our shirts and our forum as a fundraiser and help us promote it,” Leher said.

Leher added that both she and Hilgenberg are planning to lead volunteers to participate in tear-down and rehab efforts in storm-ravaged communities “when it’s open for people to come help.”

Local pick-up for the shirts will be available at 577 Haddon Ave. (next to Aster’s Florist) from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday Nov. 24. For those who can’t make it, Leher says an additional pickup opportunity will be made available—so stay tuned for details


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