Maker City KC
A letter from Katie Mabry van Dieren, curator of The Strawberry Swing Indie Craft Fair - ways you can help
I would never, in my wildest dreams, think I would have to postpone one of my festivals due to a worldly pandemic. That thought had never crossed my mind. Weather? Sure. But a pandemic? Never. Now, here we are. And our small, local businesses need us more than ever.
You may not think that a craft fair is a small business, but if you look at the data, The Strawberry Swing creates revenue for 300+ individual, small businesses each year, with more than $1 million dollars being spent at our holiday events and more than $2.5 million throughout the year. Many small businesses pay their mortgages for three months after participating in The Swing. Many earn an entire year’s salary participating in our four events. All pay into our community. The sales tax and self-employment taxes paid back into Kansas City (both in Kansas and Missouri) from the income earned at our events helps our city. And our makers give back to our communities. So during these times of social distancing, when we can’t go in person and meet our makers, we must support them virtually, if we can. We are all in this together and all are affected.
Here are some ways you can help support our community. And some ways our community is supporting you during their hardest economic times:
SHOP ONLINE AND SHARE MAKER’S SOCIAL MEDIA
Strawberry Swing’s online Maker’s Marketplace is a place you can go to order anything for yourself or your loved ones to send with a note of caring, since we can’t be together during these times of social distancing. Your sister’s birthday is coming up? Send her a lovely scented candle from Be Nurtured or a handmade soap to fight the germs from Wildcraft Co. You can order a “Long LIV the Champs” Chiefs tee shirt from Commandeer Brand or a “Don’t be a Lady be a LegEnd” tee from Cherry Gear. Kids growing fast? Order some new pajamas from Rubio Rojo. If your friend has a baby during quarantine, shop from The Coral Elephant and have a baby blanket shipped to the newborn. If the stores are out of paper towels, snag some tea towels from Green Bee. You can even order paper products like stationary and notepads from Skylab Letterpress and jewelry from Adorn Up Designs, Emilys, Cydney Ross or Manda Wylde. Need a stuffed animal to snuggle with or has your friend just had a baby? Crochet City and Happy Owlet have you covered! If you can’t shop, then share. Share your small business friend’s websites and social media accounts. Be their cheerleader.
MASKS:
Many makers have jumped head first and have become tiny assembly lines for the greater good of mankind and are creating masks for the community. SewKC and many other makers have created a buy-one-give-one handmade, washable face mask due to the critical shortage. They are severely needed in shelters, clinics and hospitals. Johnny Dawbarn, co-owner of SewKC and CollectiveEX, says, “When the seriousness of the Coronavirus started showing up in the U.S. and began to take effect on the medical field’s supply of safety masks, a local doctor reached out and asked if we would be willing to make some handmade masks for her and her clinic. She shared a link to the recent CDC guidelines/pattern and how to make them within spec. We made a few and delivered them and they were unbelievably grateful.” Friends quickly caught word of what they were doing and wanted some, as well. Dawbarn says they rapidly recognized the need was going to be much more than what they anticipated. After more material gathering, planning, converting their studio and assembling a creative team, most who were out of work with no income coming in due to other business shutdowns, Dawbarn and team began making multiples, with intent to donate one to facilities in need, every time one was purchased. “In the last few days, we have had over 1,600 orders placed from all over the U.S. and Canada, which means we will be donating just as many and more, as some people are electing to donate theirs purchased as well. Staff from places like Children’s Mercy, St. Luke’s, Johnson County Pediatrics, Overland Park Regional, The Rieger/Community Kitchen, Pediatric Care Specialists OP, Ride KC, distilleries making hand sanitizer and a numerous amount of smaller/local doctor offices, clinics, nursing homes, and hospice have reached out to us and asked if we could help. We have begun delivering as many as we can to these places but have a lot more to do,” Dawbarn says.
A Facebook group called The Million Mask Challenge, which was started in Seattle, now has a local chapter where makers are mobilizing to create masks and get them to first responders, hospitals, ride sharing services, and emergency crews. The Million Mask Challenge KC has created spreadsheets that organizations in need of masks can complete, as well as forms makers can complete to mobilize and get supplies to those who need them.
Hammerspace Community Workshop is laser-cutting face shields right now and owner Dave Dalton says, “We need to get more samples in the hands of local hospitals for evaluation. Please contact us to arrange pickup. We are working with our plastic supplier to provide these at a rate of about one per minute once we get final approval on all design features. We are also making PRUSA style face shields for those 3D printing efforts out there.”
The KC Astromechs are working along with the Blue Valley West First Robotics Competition team (#3409 Astromechs) to print 800 Prusa face masks for KU Med. They are handling the PET film and reaching out to others for printing and currently have more than 53 people helping to print.
HAND SANITIZERS/SOAPS:
Many local makers are also creating hand sanitizers to combat the shortage. Here are some options:
KC CANNING CO. is making large batches of hand sanitizer while supplies last.
MESSNER BEE FARM is making both hand sanitizer and soaps.
WILDCRAFT CO. is delivering care packages of soap, deodorant and if she has the supplies, hand sanitizer, to restaurants and coffee shops that have had to close to the public due to Coronavirus. She has taken packages to Blip, The Rieger, Pirate’s Bone, Louie’s Wine Dive, and many more. Sarah Preu, owner of Wildcraft Co. says, “Lots of folks have pitched in and asked if they could help me get supplies for this effort, so I created a listing for people to purchase one of these care packages to be sent. Each package has one soap, one mini soap or deodorant and when I have it, a hand sanitizer. I just re-upped my supplies so I’m going to continue to do this as long as I possibly can and as long as they’ll let me out in the streets.”
KC RELIEF
Stephanie Given of Black Lab Studio has created a KC Relief Fund with her prints, cups, and mugs and will donate all proceeds to those in need.
FOOD/RESTAURANTS:
Danielle Lehman, who started Open Belly Podcast, realized our local restaurants were taking a huge economic hit and started Curbside KC, a website which has more than 1,000 local restaurants, breweries and wineries who are still open for pick-up and delivery on it. Lehman says, “Local Kansas City restaurants need our support more than ever during the Coronavirus outbreak, and I wanted to support them by creating a database they could use to help the public know there are still options to dine “out” at home and support their local, small businesses.”
We are all in this together, Kansas City, so let’s stay #kcstrong and come together to support our small businesses during this unprecedented time.