During the early hours of March 3, a powerful and devastating tornado ripped across Middle Tennessee at speeds up to 165 miles per hour, damaging buildings and endangering lives in Nashville and its surrounding counties. Lebanon, Tennessee-based Southeast Impressions (southeastimpressions.com) luckily made it through the natural disaster without suffering structural damage, but the print shop’s surrounding community was not as fortunate.
Southeast Impressions immediately developed a plan to help their neighbors and began selling “I Believe” community-themed T-shirts with 100 percent of sales going to help those in Putnam and Wilson counties. They also held a “Free Print Day” on March 14; all the proceeds were donated to relief efforts.
“We wanted to give back the only way we know how, and that’s to print shirts,” says Ben Spurlock, owner and production manager at Southeast Impressions. “It’s going to take a lot of hard work and time to rebuild our community, and we want to help make an impact.”
The shop used the famous “I Believe in Nashville” mural in downtown Nashville to create custom, local “I Believe in Wilson County,” “I Believe in Lebanon,” “I Believe in Cookeville,” and “I Believe in Mt. Juliet” shirts. The phrase carries power in the region as the famous mural was painted as a symbol of the city’s resilience after the historic Tennessee floods of 2010.
Southeast Impressions is selling the shirts, donated by Jerzees, for $18 each on their website, with all sales going to the Putnam and Wilson County disaster relief funds.
To learn more about Southeast Impressions’ relief efforts or to join the cause, follow their social feeds on Instagram and Facebook.