A new campaign aims to bring Bloomington-Normal businesses closer together during the coronavirus pandemic.
Graphic design and screen printing company Meltdown Creative Works (MCW) has launched an initiative called commUNITY. Each business participating will have a special logo or graphic tee for sale on MCW’s website. MCW sells, prints, and delivers the products, while sharing the profits with each business.
“We're giving them all the pieces of digital media, images, things they need to properly promote (their business) throughout social media,” said MCW owner and president Jeremy Plue.
So far, MCW has connected with over 30 of Bloomington’s restaurants and shops, including D.P. Dough, Coffee Hound, Common Ground, Sugar Mama’s Bakery, and Wilson’s Cycle.
“We really wanted it to be an all-encompassing campaign,” said Plue. “We wanted to make it as easy as possible for companies that are already struggling and don't need the extra stress when trying to put all this stuff together.”
Promotion efforts range from making company T-shirts to social media posts.
“We even went to the point of printing out flyers to give to companies to help them out in their delivery,” said Plue.
He said the inspiration behind commUNITY was simple: the people and their passion.
“That's really why I like working with small businesses, to still see that big level of passion. You know, Meltdown is my life. Wilson cycle — that's Michael Wilson’s life. Coffee Hound, that’s their life,” said Plue. “So it’s just being able to really get to know these people through this unprecedented hardship, and being there to help each other out as much as possible.”
Plue is confident the campaign will create a strong bond even after the pandemic. In the meantime, they’ve banded together online, collaborating on plans and ideas.
“There’s that feeling like I have this. I actually do have this community. It's not just something we say, we do have this community of people who are there to help each other out,” said Plue.
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