Death Wish Coffee “Broke but not Busted” Program for Service-Industry COVID-19 Relief

Saratoga Springs, New York usually has a bustling downtown scene filled with people enjoying a drink at happy hour, grabbing a bite to eat at their favorite restaurant, sipping on a coffee with a friend, or simply walking around enjoying each other’s company.

May 6, 2020 / / —

As our world confronts a global pandemic, our downtown atmosphere has disappeared. Restaurants, bars, and other small businesses have their doors locked with signs reading “Closed Indefinitely” on the windows, and thousands of people have suddenly lost their incomes.

Our community’s foundation is cracked as small businesses stay closed and bartenders, servers, tattoo artists, hairdressers, and thousands more suddenly find themselves out of work. So it’s time for us to step up and take care of the people who take care of us.

We’re releasing two T-shirts to help raise money for service industry workers in the Saratoga Springs area who need it most, and we need your help. One T-shirt reads “When this is all over, please continue to stay at least 6 feet away from me” and is inspired by one of our memes. The other was designed by local tattoo artist Melanie Lucia-Clarke.

Melanie Lucia-Clarke is an Albany, NY-based tattoo artist. She and her husband, Pete Clarke, both work at The Dead Presidents Lounge, a custom tattoo shop and art gallery in Albany. The tattoo parlor has been closed along with hundreds of small businesses in the Capital Region area of New York as the nation tries to flatten the curve of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I tried to represent as many as I could fit — tattooers, servers, artists, bartenders, body workers, cosmetologists, and barbers — there are SO many others not represented,” Clarke said in an interview. “We don’t get paid time off, sick leave, or traditional unemployment insurance. We rely solely on serving our clients and customers for our financial wellbeing.”

With the tagline, “Broke, Not Busted” this T-shirt is a powerful symbol of how we can rally together to provide support to the people who make Saratoga Springs what it is. In a time of unprecedented challenges and change, we need to turn to each other — to lend a socially-distant hand, to provide support in any way we can, and to show what it truly means to be a community.

“When a member of our community is ‘broke,’ we all are — but we’re not ‘busted.’ New York is our home, and when Death Wish Coffee needed it most, our community stepped up and showed their support for our business in 2015 when we were in the running for a Super Bowl commercial. Now it’s our turn. The funds raised from the sale of this shirt will be distributed between the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce, Brewnited, and a number of local businesses that are out of work due to the pandemic,” Mike Pilkington, Chief Operating Officer at Death Wish Coffee Company, said.

“This pandemic has really hurt our industries and has left a lot of us scrambling to keep our business ‘open’ and our bills paid without making any money for the foreseeable future,” Clarke said. “There is so much uncertainty about the future of our businesses right now — everything is broken, but not busted. I tried to represent that with this shirt.”

In partnership with the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce, our goal is to raise $75,000 to donate to local establishments and service industry workers in our home in the Capital Region through the Death Wish Coffee “Broke but not Busted” program.
One-hundred percent of the profits from the sale of this shirt will be distributed between the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce, Brewnited, and local businesses and establishments in the Capital Region area of New York.

This shirt is being released at 11 a.m. EST Wednesday, the 29th and will be available for purchase at www.deathwishcoffee.com/notbusted

Contact Info:
Name: John White
Email: Send Email
Organization: Death Wish Coffee
Website: http://www.deathwishcoffee.com/notbusted

Source:

Release ID: 88956456