BRATTLEBORO — We held the Vakaros Strong Fundraiser on April 1 and 2 for our co-worker and friend, Lindsey Vakaros, and her two small children, Julianna, 9, and Preston, 2, who recently lost Steven Vakaros, their husband and father, suddenly.
We were supposed to do the entire event on that Saturday but Mother Nature got in the way. We did the first leg of our event Saturday and the second on Sunday.
The first was inside our hair salon on Saturday (our business's 22nd birthday), with all the profits going to the fundraiser. With the storm coming in, we were getting a lot of cancellations on Thursday and Friday but they filled back in by Saturday and we had our best day of the week. Yay us!
My team scrambled to move the outside part to Sunday, and it turned into a beautiful sunny day. We had baked goods, hot dogs, hot foods. The Pink Heals pink firetruck came.
The outpouring of community support that we had was incredible. More than 30 businesses donated to our raffle. We couldn't be happier with the turnout.
We also did an online fundraiser in Steven's name, selling T-shirts, sweatshirts, and stickers. I designed them with the help of Steven's widow, Lindsey.
We raised almost $5,000 with all the fundraising the girls at Shear Designs alone have done. I have never been more proud of my staff.