Recently, there was a horrible fire in Downtown Visalia, the town in which I live. Three businesses were destroyed, including one of my favorite restaurants, Cafe225.
Chef Karl from 225, the owner and head chef, has always been helpful to me at my other job at the high school. When I was activities director, he was always there for me when we needed a luncheon catered for the homecoming court. He is a real standup guy who always takes the time to talk with me when we bump into each other downtown.
I’ve got a real soft spot for restaurant workers. I worked as a waiter and bartender for 15 years or so at a place in town called “The Cask n’ Cleaver”. I know how tight things can get when you’re living tip to tip, check to check, and so when the staff at Mama K’s Diner and Cafe225 woke up Christmas day to hear that the ticket to their livelihoods went up in flames the night before, I can only imagine how devastated they might feel.
So a lot of the downtown businesses in Visalia have rallied together to help the people affected by the fire. A great pizza place named Planing Mill is having a charity night this week and is donating 25% of the night’s take to a relief fund. I know the owners of Planing Mill, having worked with Alisha at Redwood when she taught there, and I figured I would reach out to her to see if I couldn’t contribute to the night by taking my manual press down to the restaurant and doing some live screenprinting to sell some shirts and make a donation to the fund.
I will be offering three different 2 color print options on a Next Level tee. I have designed two of them and a friend, Eddie Reveles, of Revel Design, is going to design the third. The tee itself runs about $3 a piece at my cost, and I am going to ask for a 10 dollar donation. That means each shirt will help get $7 in the hands of a bunch of folks in a tough spot. (and if you are feeling particularly generous, you can always donate a little more)
If you’ve got a craving for a pizza and tee and want to help out with some dollars, I’ll be printing from about 5:30 on Wednesday, January 23rd. My daughter will be helping, so come on down and join me in printing for a purpose. Here is a link to the facebook event thing. For a few dollars more, I might even let you pull a squeegee.
peace, love, and pink fuzzy slippers. Nicko from Miller Brothers