Couple designs T-shirt to honour Quinn Butt

A Dartmouth, N.S., couple is selling T-shirts in honour of Quinn Butt because they say they want to help the famly of the little Newfoundland and Labrador girl killed in a Carbonear house fire in April 2016.

Her father, Trent Butt, charged with killing the fiveyear-old, has pleaded not guilty, and on Monday his trial was delayed until March 2019.

Delays were expected after Butt had fired his original lawyers, requesting new representation, and the family was devastated.

Quinn’s death horrified the province. Among those whose heart broke for Quinn’s mom, Andrea Gosse, was Sara Cole.

She and her husband, Mike, who is in the Canadian Forces, are both from Winterton, and operate a company called Hometown Pride, which, among other things, sells Tshirts that the couple designs.

Cole said she was pregnant with their first of two children when they heard of the tragedy.

“I can’t imagine,” she said of how Quinn’s mom and her family are coping. “We wanted to help them in some way.”

Cole said she wanted the T-shirts to honour Quinn, to celebrate her life and not be a

reminder of her death.

According to Cole, she got approval through Facebook from Gosse, and the T-shifts and other logoed items were launched on Good Friday.

Since then, about 50 have been sold and $600 from the sales has been set aside for Gosse and Quinn’s family to help out as they endure the justice system delays, Cole said.

Most have been sold in the Conception Bay North area, but they’ve gone all over Canada and as far as the Yukon, she said.

The logo features a cat with a princess crown, and the colours are pink and purple — Quinn’s favourites — but Cole said there are colour options if requested.

“We want to see people rallying together for Quinn, to see the light of her instead of the sadness … to show how many people care about them, are rooting for them and giving them strength in this trial,” Cole said.

The items range in price from $10 to $45 — there’s also a pillow and a decal — and can be viewed online at https://www.hometownpride. ca/collections/in-honour-ofquinn?aff=22

SUBMITTED Sara Cole, a Winterton native who now lives in Dartmouth, N.S., holds a T-shirt she designed with her husband, Mike, to honour Quinn Butt, who was killed in a house fire that her father, Trent Butt, is accused of setting.