[EDITOR'S NOTE — Difference Makers articles share stories of the local heroes making a difference during the extraordinary times of the COVID-19 pandemic. This section is made possible by Eastwood Mall and named in honor of Mark Eckert, who made a difference in the Mahoning Valley.]
GIRARD — New Dawn Designs recently launched Sweet Memories Vintage Tees to reacquaint the community with vintage brands via T-shirts.
The first collection honors the 100th anniversary of Good Humor, a national ice cream brand that originated in Youngstown. For each T-shirt sold, 20 percent of proceeds will be donated to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Akron Children’s Hospital.
In 1920, Harry B. Burt created the Good Humor bar in Youngstown after developing "a smooth chocolate coating that was compatible with ice cream," according to the Mahoning Valley Historical Society.
Linda Barton, the owner of New Dawn Designs, said her goal is to raise $40,000 for the NICU Unit, which would cover the cost of one infant bed. New Dawn Designs will need to sell 8,000 T-shirts to reach that goal.
New Dawn Designs was founded in 1999 and is located at 1282 Trumbull Ave. The store is a local T-shirt licensee that specializes in custom screen printing for minor league baseball, as well as print apparel for businesses, organizations and contractors.
Barton said she chose Akron Children’s Hospital as the donation beneficiary because when her daughter was 9, she spent two weeks in Akron Children’s hospital with MRSA. Through that experience, Barton said she saw first-hand how compassionate and dedicated the staff is.
“Akron Children's is a really great organization,” she said. “It saved my daughter's life.”
Through researching Good Humor, Barton discovered Burt is also credited for inventing ice cream trucks and other innovations. The original Good Humor building is located at 325 W. Federal St. and is now home to the Tyler History Center in downtown Youngstown.
Barton was awestruck by her Good Humor discoveries, and she wanted to find a way to reintroduce Good Humor to the community by also making a difference.
“I was thinking kids and ice cream, and then it just popped in my head and like, ‘You know, I need to connect with Akron Children’s [Hospital]. They do so much for the community. They do so much for kids,’” she said. “What better way to give back to the kids but with ice cream.”
New Dawn Designs apparel line, Sweet Memories Vintage Tees, officially launched the Good Humor T-shirts in the lobby of Akron Children’s Hospital in February.
Barton said she initially began the project in April 2019 by contacting Good Humor’s owner, Unilever, to see who designed their novelty T-shirts. To her surprise, the brand didn’t carry apparel.
“So I proposed … [as] a woman-owned business, small-town business owner that I would incur all the costs to design and manufacture T-shirts with their stamp of approval, and I would pay them a royalty just like I do with minor league baseball,” she said.
In August 2019, Barton got a contract to produce Good Humor branded apparel for a year. The contract has since been extended an additional year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Which is great because we had all these events set up that we were going to do and sell T-shirts, and obviously they got canceled,” she added.
The partnership between Sweet Memories Vintage Tees by New Dawn Designs and Akron Children’s Hospital caught the attention of Popsicle, also owned by Unilever.
“[Popsicle] reached out to me and said, ‘We love what you're doing with Good Humor. We love that you're giving back to the children's hospital. We want in,’” Barton said.
In September, Sweet Memories Vintage Tees by New Dawn Designs will launch its Popsicle line designed by recent Youngstown State University graduate Abbey Scoville. The line will include Firecracker Ice Pops, Snow Cone and vintage 1946 advertising shirts.
“Unilever was really excited about what we were doing with our brand, and they gave us a referral to Dum Dum Lollipops,” Barton said. “So we got the contract for Dum Dum.”
Through New Dawn Design’s collaboration with Unilever and Dum Dum Lollipops, the Mahoning Valley apparel line also caught the attention of Necco and will be launching vintage Smarties and Sweetheart lines in the near future as well.
Barton said 20 percent of all of these novelty vintage T-shirts will go toward the Akron Children’s Hospital NICU unit as well. T-shirts can be purchased at Sweet Memories Vintage Tees.
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August 18, 2020 at 04:11PM
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Girard company launches new T-shirts line to stir Sweet Memories - Mahoning Matters
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