After last Friday’s Rock for Relief concert on CHEK TV, which helped raise nearly seven hundred thousand dollars for Vancouver Island charities, the evening’s co-host Joe Perkins had an idea.
“What do you do when you go to a concert? You hit the ‘merch’ table,” said Perkins, the anchor for CHEK News at 6 p.m.
That thought quickly turned into action as the CHEK News team reached out to friends in the community, including Team Sales president and co-owner Moreno Stefani.
“Jeff King reached out to me and he talked to me about this project. He hadn’t even finished what he was about to ask me until I said I’m in,” Stefani said.
Team Sales took on the production of the shirts and a finished product was developed within days. Perkins then called on friend Al Hasham, president of Maximum Express, to help with distribution.
“I said sure we can help out, he asked ‘what kind of pricing we can expect’, I said none,” Hasham said.
This isn’t the first time CHEK has delved into the fashion world. In 2009, with the company on the brink of closing its doors for good, ‘Save CHEK News’ shirts helped keep the station alive. And now, with all proceeds from the Rock for Relief shirts going to the Island Response Fund and Rapid Relief Fund, the Vancouver Island faithful have once again stepped up.
“We ordered five hundred shirts, not knowing if anyone would want them. Within about an hour and a half we sold over five hundred,” said Perkins.
At the moment, demand is far exceeding supply and CHEK employees have been tasked with everything from making labels to organizing deliveries. It’s a small operation so Perkins warns delivery times may vary.
“The harder we push it, the more work we have to do, which is fine, we’re happy to do it but just please be patient with us because, like, the head of human resources is the head of labelling,” Perkins added.
“This is a real team effort.”
It’s a team effort that stretches well beyond the walls of CHEK and into businesses sacrificing their time, money and effort for the betterment of their fellow Islanders in need.
“The front logo, it’s a heart encompassing the island and what that means to me is the island is in this together,” said Stefani.
“Going forward in the future, we’re gonna have that memory of where we were this time trying to think about how we got out of it and we all will get out of it together, so it’ll be a great memory going forward,” said Hasham.
Anyone who’d like to purchase a T-shirt can click here.
Kevin Charach
