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Cariboo businesswoman and staff combine talents to help fire-stricken Australia

Courtney Vreeman has designed ‘Australia Strong’ T-shirt, Mandee Beaulieu created wildlife prints
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Still North Design Co. store manager Heather Judd, left, sales associate Mandee Beaulieu and owner and founder, Courtney Vreeman, and her dog, Benny, are keeping very busy at the Williams Lake store after launching a T-shirt and wildlife print fundraiser for fire-ravaged Australia. (Monica Lamb-Yorski photo - Williams Lake Tribune)

Still North Design Co. in Williams Lake is busy filling orders from around the world after launching a T-shirt and wildlife print fundraiser to aid fire-ravaged Australia.

In just a day, the fundraiser has far exceeded the expectations of owner Courtney Vreeman and sale associate Mandee Beaulieu.

“I’m pretty sure we hit our $10,000 goal in less than 24 hours,” Vreeman told the Williams Lake Tribune Thursday.

Read more:Williams Lake businesswoman launches T-shirt fundraiser for fire-ravaged Australia

Vreeman, whose T-shirt designs have gained wild popularity across Canada in the last two years, created an ‘Australia Strong’ design for her T-shirts with 100 per cent of the profits of the shirts sold donated to help the country.

Vreeman thought about creating a T-shirt for quite awhile and came up with the design just on Wednesday. Some coral copper-coloured vinyl Vreeman ordered by mistake last month is now being used for the map design on the shirts.

“It came out pretty cool,” Vreeman said, smiling.

During the 2017 wildfires she created ‘BC Strong’ and ‘Riske Creek Strong’ T-shirts for fundraising and last fall a ‘Support your local logger’ T-shirt. Those campaigns both raised thousands of dollars to help those in need.

She plans to run the fundraiser for seven days and said orders have come in from all over the world.

Vreeman went on to thank Still North’s fans and followers for the outpouring of support.

“I truly live to give and you guys always supporting my crazy fundraisers means the world to me. I appreciate every single one of you, and though SNDC’s contribution may not be huge, every penny counts.”

Beaulieu used her own talents as an artist to created koala, western pygmy possum and kangaroo prints.

Two days ago she woke up with the idea, went and bought some art supplies that morning and stayed up until midnight painting them.

“I posted them on Facebook right before I went to bed and the next day I woke up and saw the post had reached 13,000 people.”

She had sold close to $2,000 worth by Thursday morning.

Read more: Williams Lake artist uses talents drawing wildlife to aid Australia’s fire fight



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