Washington Strong Shirts

In the hours and days that followed the November 17, 2013, tornado that ripped through Washington, the entire community was rattled but unified.  Over a thousand homes were destroyed, and it seemed everyone who did not live in the tornado's direct path was helping someone who was.  Everyone wanted to do something to help.

A few days after the tornado, Roger & Kathy Holzhauer, owners of Team Works, noticed that some businesses outside of Washington were creating T-shirts as a commemorative, but for profit.  Roger discussed printing up a T-shirt with Washington Mayor Gary Manier to help raise funds for tornado victims.  After being given the go-ahead, Kathy worked fast to get a design together and put the word out that day regarding ordering instructions.  Brunks Sports Center was also brought in to help with the project. Like everyone else in town, these businesses wanted to do something to help.  The initial goal was to sell 1,000 shirts for $20, earning $20,000 for the tornado fund.

Team Works made a social media announcement about the shirts on November 20 around 1:00 p.m.  By 10:00 p.m., they had taken orders for 1,600 shirts, and things were about to get even more crazy.  The Team Works email server crashed due to the volume of emails they received.  Their staff could not keep up with the messages being left via phone.  Two days into the campaign, they had to stop taking orders via any and all methods except customer visits to the store.

Early pickup of finished T-shirts was a madhouse.  Serpentine lines winding through the store and extending out the door across the parking lot were the standard for weeks as the printing of more shirts continued non-stop.  The store could not fulfill any other orders for six weeks.  Over the course of printing and pickup, over 140 people worked at Team Works, helping them accomplish this mission, including the entire I.C.C. softball team.  Washingtonians were driving to Bolingbrook to pick up more blank orange shirts to be printed.  Two weeks after the tornado, Team Works had taken orders for 10,734 shirts.  Things finally slowed down closer to Christmas, and the shirts became ubiquitous throughout the town and area. The shirts were spotted being worn as far away as Australia and China.  T-shirt sales continued for about a year until they were sold out and printing stopped.  Ultimately, over 21,000 T-shirts were sold, bringing over $420,000 to the Tornado Relief Fund.