T-shirt sales to benefit Arts & The Park
Since numerous festivals and events intended as fundraisers have been postponed or canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Arkansas Festivals & Events Association has partnered with Rock City Outfitters to sell T-shirts to help benefit the various events, including Arts & The Park.
Mary Zunick, executive director of the Hot Springs Area Cultural Alliance, said for each shirt sold for $20, the alliance will receive $10.
Zunick said she was first contacted by AFEA “a couple of weeks ago and asked if we would like to be a part” of the project. As the festival was supposed to begin Friday, “we were certainly impacted by it,” she said, noting the festival is now set to run from Sept. 25 until Oct. 4.
Zunick said Dolores Justus, a local artist and downtown gallery owner, designed the Arts & The Park shirt which, along with all the other shirts in the charity, went on sale
Saturday.
“We hope everyone will go online and purchase a shirt,” Zunick said, noting it is a “win, win” for both Arts & The Park and Rock City Outfitters, as it helps bring money in for both organizations.
Ryan Ritchie, owner of Rock City Outfitters, said when AFEA approached him about making the shirts, “I thought it was a great idea.” He said the shop has worked with AFEA in the past on other projects.
Ritchie said he understands the importance of the festivals and events, noting, “a lot of communities rely on those funds.” He said selling the shirts is an effort to “just try to do something to help.”
Rock City Outfitters is also selling shirts for Hot Wild Events, Heber Springs Springfest, Fordyce on the Cottonbelt, Arkansas Pie Festival, Southern Food Festival, Arkansas Portable Toilets and some shirts where the money will go to the Arkansas Food Bank.
Ritchie said that since the shirts were added to their website, https://www.rockcityoutfitters.com/collections/ fundraiser-tees, they have “had a pretty good engagement.” He said some festivals are “pushing it harder” than others.