NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A fundraiser from the local clothing store Project 615 raised more than $60,000 in tornado relief in just one day.
The "Nashville Strong" campaign launched just hours after storms tore through Tennessee, killing 25 people and causing an untold amount of damage. Project 615 started printing the shirts on Wednesday, but the orders were already coming in.
The tornado caused incredible damage in East Nashville, just a couple blocks away from Project Nashville's East Location.
"We're just up the street on Fatherland Street," Project 615's Morgan Teller said. "The East location is okay, we’re just out of power right now."
But even though the store was dark, it's production center was busy getting to work on the new Nashville Strong shirt
"We knew we needed to do something," Teller said.
"The money will go to the Community Foundation of Tennessee, they have set up an emergency response fund for Middle Tennessee, so all of the profits from the t-shirts sold will go toward that," Teller said.
The Nashville Strong shirts were announced Tuesday and by Wednesday, they'd already raised thousands of dollars.
"We have been able to give back $60,000 so far to the community fund, and its only been day one."
For some workers, the shirts are especially significant.
"I live over in East Nashville and so many people were just not even sure what to do, and we saw the willingness from neighbors to be like 'what do you need?'" Project 615 worker Eric Stevens said.
"That's just what Nashville is," Teller said. "We’re strong, we will come through this."
The shirts are not yet in store shelves, but are being made. You can pre-order the shirts on the Project 615 website. The company said you should allow 10-14 days for the shirts to ship. They expect the shirts to be in stores by sometime next week.
