Halifax Mask Makers Share Success With Local Charities
This story is part of a series called, Business Does Good, stories about Maritime companies contributing time and money to making their communities stronger.
HALIFAX—The husband-and-wife team behind a small Halifax business has had a big impact on local charities last year, funneling tens of thousands of dollars to organizations across the province.
Sherrie Kearney runs Maritime Tartan Company with her husband Dale. Traditionally, she sells hand-sewn scarves, bags, robes, and other items adorned with tartan patterns.
When Covid-19 arrived in Nova Scotia, Sherrie saw the devastating impacts the pandemic was having on the community. She wanted to do something to help, so she decided to make protective masks and sell them in support of local charities.
“We knew that there’s going to be a lot of people needing help,” Dale told Huddle earlier last year. “People are losing jobs and work is drying up, so we decided let’s just do some [masks] for charity,”
The goal, Sherrie said, was to make a simple, reasonably priced mask nearly anyone could afford. Using some extra fabric she had lying around and elastics she bought cheaply, she started making simple masks she could sell at a low price point.
Maritime Tartan Company began selling masks on its website in early April. Orders immediately rolled in and, before long, they had sold more than a thousand masks and raised more than $20,000 for charity.
The company has become increasingly well known as the pandemic has stretched on. Working more-or-less on her own, Sherrie has sewed more than 18,000 masks this year. But throughout it all, she and Dale have continued to signal boost and donate to local charities.
Since the beginning of April, they’ve driven donations to 18 different charities in Nova Scotia, ranging from a $500 gift to Margaret’s House in Dartmouth to $3,300 to Christmas Daddies and $2,500 to fill families’ oil tanks for the winter.
All told, the donations have totaled more than $20,000, “pretty impressive,” Dale muses, for what is essentially a one-person business.
“We’re kind people by nature and we’ve done quite well and become quite well-known through our masks, so why not? Why not use our popularity to bring in some extra money for people who need it?” Dale says.
“You only need so much for yourself, the rest is just greed,” Sherrie adds.
Dale says he hopes he and Sherrie’s support for local charities will help inspire other local businesses to do the same—not just around the holidays, but throughout the year.
Covid-19 will still be affecting people for most of this year, he says, and he’d love to see the business community come together and give continued support to the people who will still be feeling the pinch of the pandemic in 2021.
Even now, he and Sherrie are in the middle of auctioning off a tie and mask signed by chief medical officer of health Dr. Robert Strang. The proceeds will be donated to Shelter Nova Scotia.
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