September 1, 2007

The plaque and sponsor tags are here!

The donor plaque is now mounted on the front pillar of the store and it’s one of the first things you see when you walk into Modern Times. The donor shelf tags have been placed around the store in their corresponding sections. Story of the plaque (or, why the hell did it take so long?): After spending the fall collecting sponsors we began the process of creating the plaque post Christmas-retail madness. Once we started, we quickly realized that we wanted something more than a bland commercial product, so we began the search process for a willing artist. After a couple of false starts and broken deadlines, one of our staffers decided to take matters into their own hands.

It began with a conversation between said staffer and their retired mechanic father about materials. Soon dad was directly involved with the work. A sketch was mapped out. There was a vision. Calls were made to fellow mechanic friends. Soon people were dropping by the house. They came bearing motorcycle gears, timing chains, slabs of nickel plate, and advice. Freewheel Bicycle down the block donated a few bike gears. A boyfriend worked on the riveting and poxying. It quickly turned into a communal effort, and a tribute to good ol’ blue collar know how. The result is a truly unique and homegrown piece of work. We hope you can visit us at the store and see it for yourselves. We are excited to see this project “completed.” In reality, we will be moving onto the next step of trying to fill a few last spaces on the plaque and continuing the search for folks to adopt sections of the store. Since there is no limit to the number of shelf tags we can put up, we hope this will be an ongoing fundraiser. Thanks again to all those who made donations and adopted sections. We adore you!

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