11-30-2019
How Curated Gift Box Business Marigold & Grey Plans to Celebrate Giving Tuesday
FILED IN: Holiday & Seasonal, M&G Happenings
Posted By: Jamie Kutchman, Founder
As you may recall, one of the major goals we set for ourselves going into 2019 was to find and execute ways to give back. Earlier in the year, we sponsored gifts for an event for Safe Shores, a local DC children's advocacy group dedicated to helping children and adolescents affected by trauma and violence, by providing brightly colored welcome gifts for every single attendee! We were even invited to attend the event as a team and it was an incredibly gratifying experience. But another opportunity to give back came to us more spontaneously back in September when we experienced our building fire and we are so excited to share with you how we plan to give back even more today, on Giving Tuesday!
Remember all the fire fighters I told you about? As I shared with you guys, one particular fire captain saw how distraught I was on scene and just prior to our studio becoming condemned, he offered to let me inside to assess the damage and see if there was anything that could possibly be saved. When I walked in, it was BAD. Most everything was water logged and ruined but there was miraculously one section right smack in the middle of the studio where things were completely untouched. There was no earthly explanation for it - the entire studio was flooded and being heavily rained on except for this one area that happened to contain several of our finished projects that were slated to go out that week. He immediately called for backup and I ran around desperately grabbing whatever I could while these fire fighters helped do the heavy lifting to get everything outside. Sure, technically speaking, they were on-scene to fight fire. But they saw ME. They saw more than just a commercial warehouse building on fire. They saw my dream in serious jeopardy and deemed saving my business just as important as anything else they were there on scene to do. They made it their personal mission to help me salvage as much as we could in the short amount of time we had. I can remember hearing the fire chief come across their walkie talkies several times telling everyone to get out because they were condemning the building due to possible roof collapse and instead of them telling me "sorry, time to go", they just hustled even harder, resulting in more property being saved. Table after table, cart after cart, I swear they hurried everything outside and hoped it could be saved as if the business were their own. They even took it upon themselves to locate a huge tarp to cover a couple of pallets of inventory that we were simply too heavy to get out of there quickly.
Without them, I'd no longer be in business. The loss would've been far too huge. We would've had nothing left to work with and with insurance being uncooperative, it would've been game-over for Marigold & Grey, just shy of our fifth business birthday. But instead, we've made a comeback and will still miraculously manage to meet our goal of more than doubling our revenue again this year. Truly a miracle.
I sometimes hear people say "business is business" and advise you never to take it personally. But with small business, I disagree. When you spend so much time devoted to building something from the ground up, and sacrifice time away from your family and friends to do it, it IS personal. I'm so lucky that this huge-hearted group of men and women went out of their way to save something so meaningful to me. I could say 'thank you' to them a million times but it would never be enough.
At the time of the fire, we made the commitment to donate a portion of our proceeds from our online shop directly to Kensington Volunteer Fire Department so they can continue helping others in need, and who knows, hopefully save more small businesses along the way. And on top of that, on an on-going basis, a percentage of all of our Amazon purchases are donated to them via the Amazon Smile program.
But we won't stop here. With today being Giving Tuesday, we will double the percentage of our contribution to KVFD based on orders placed in our online shop today. Marigold & Grey is alive and thriving thanks to them. It's the least we can do! In fact, I cannot wait to drive around the corner later this month and present them with a check. I've never been more excited in my life to make a donation and I know my team feels the same way too.
I realize that this fire station is local to us and not a nationally known organization. However, with as much darkness there is in the world today, the group you see in this post are the epitome of all that is good in the world and this type of goodness is universal. As unlucky as it was to experience a building fire through absolutely no fault of our own, I recognize how insanely lucky we got that day to have Station Five with us that day. If you're considering gifting with us anytime soon, please consider doing so today here and know that you'll be making double the impact today for #GivingTuesday! Or, you can even bypass gifting with us and donate directly to KVFD's efforts here.
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