ARDEN, N.C. (828newsNOW) — After Hurricane Helene struck Western North Carolina in September 2024, David and Christina Riddell gave away over 1,200 customized T-shirts to people in their community.
The Riddells are the franchise owners of Big Frog Custom T-Shirts & More of Asheville, a print shop located near the airport in Arden, N.C.
The couple opened the shop in 2016. Nine years later, Big Frog is going strong, despite the challenges that cropped up over their first decade in business.
“We’ve had every challenge under the sun, from a year and a half of no events in Covid, to the Florida hurricanes that hit the mountains, to the California wildfires that hit the mountains, to economical issues, to anything else, but we are still kicking it,” David Riddell said. “At the core, the reason we get to kick it is because from day one we have been deep, deep into the community.”
Community is deeply important to the Riddells. David Riddell, for instance, shared that he had participated as a board member for at least four nonprofits, three chambers and two business associations. Big Frog has been a regular sponsor for events at churches, nonprofits and schools.
“Since day one, we knew the only way to survive is to be part of the community,” David Riddell said.
After Helene hit, Big Frog was faced with a reversal. How could they could help their community survive?
“What you have to do and what you want to do is play neighborly. Well, I have shirts. I can do shirts well,” David Riddell reflected.
The Riddells decided to pitch an idea on Facebook.
“”Who would like a shirt?’ We came up with five designs,” David Riddell quoted. “‘Who would like a shirt? Just email us with the size and the design.'”
The Riddells offered each of their shirts free of charge, expecting to receive at most a couple hundred responses. The end results far exceeded their expectations.
Despite a widespread lack of power or phone service in the Asheville area, by the next morning, the Riddells had received 800 emails about their Facebook post.
“We put the offer out there, so now we have 800 emails. My wife answered every single one of them, which amounted to 1,200 shirts,” David Riddell recalled. “She put them all into a spreadsheet. I mean, some people just go, ‘this would be great.’ But most of them came with ‘I can’t believe you guys are doing that, this is incredible.'”
The shirts, accompanied by stickers with one of the designs, were emblazoned with slogans like “WNC Strong” and “Still Here, Come Hell or High Water.”
The message was exactly what the community needed to hear after the disaster.
“We had a lady walk in that said, ‘I lost everything and all I wanted was a shirt,’ so at the core, why did we do it?” David Riddell said. “Because we could and all we had was shirts. So when people would pick up, we’d say, ‘if you smiled for five minutes, then we’ve done our job right.'”
The Riddells didn’t get money out of the experience. Instead, they were repaid with the thing most important to them: a stronger, more connected community.
“When you get involved in the community, you have a tribe, right?” Riddell said. “And we’re Big Frog, so a group of frogs is called an army.”
For more about Big Frog, visit www.bigfrog.com/asheville.
A portion of the proceeds from the sale of Helene orders will be donated to hurricane relief efforts. Check out the Big Frog Hurricane Helene page at hurricanehelene.itemorder.com/shop/home.