Little Bear Fire Shirts

As many of you may know, there was recently a 37,000+ acre fire that burned northwest of Ruidoso. At last count, 224 homes and 10 outbuildings were lost. There are over 1,400 crews and overhead currently assigned to the firefighting efforts. As I am also involved with wildland fire, I was one of those people.

I have been to many, many fires all over the western United States. Many firefighters like to collect a t-shirt from the fires that they have been on, so "little monster" (my very artistic daughter and right hand here at the shop) designed a t-shirt to commemorate the Little Bear fire. She is selling the shirts around the Ruidoso area and they are available via our storefront in Cloudcroft. (Just give us a call if you want to purchase one. They are $15 for short sleeve and $20 for long sleeve.)

One thing that we are doing that I have never known other t-shirt vendors to do is donating 10% of the proceeds from the sale of these shirts to the Red Cross and the Wildland Firefighters Foundation. I'm hoping we will set an example for other vendors to follow. As someone involved with wildland fire, I know how hard the Red Cross volunteers work when evacuations occur and homes are lost. And as someone who has been around when firefighter's have lost their lives, I know how beneficial the Wildland Firefighters Foundation is.

Little Bear Fire Shirt

I can say that when I left Ruidoso 2 days ago, the skies were clear, the crews had made great progress, and the weather had started to cooperate. Let's hope it stays that way! To all of those who lost their homes, my heart goes out to you.