From facemasks allowing people to be fashionable in the age of COVID to coffee helping people in Africa, Lipscomb-inspired entrepreneurs are offering shoppers opportunities to offer hyper-local support to small businesses as the holidays fast approach.
One student at Lipscomb has two small businesses. Rachel Pavelich is selling both masks and memories.
Rach Makes Masks, spurred by the need for face protection during the COVID pandemic, opened in August.
Her other business is Tied Up With Memories.
“This business started in 2013, and it makes memory blankets out of T-shirts, and I have made over 100 blankets so far,” said Pavelich.
“I have been so blessed to have such supportive customers, so I donate a portion of each blanket purchase to the American Stroke Association and Komen For The Cure in honor of two dear customers.” Susan G. Komen (the official name) is the largest breast-cancer organization in the United States.
And there are other opportunities to patronize small businesses flavored by Lipscomb.
Sara Hinton, CEO of Simply Organized Co, sells cool stickers, T-shirts and hoodies. Shoppers can reach her company through Etsy or by emailing the CEO at sahinton1@mail.lipscomb.edu.
Sydney Buckner runs Make.sell.go which stands for “Making products you’ll love. Selling them to go. Going to share the love of Jesus.” This business specializes in making customized T-shirts, accessories and other designs, all while trying to share the love of Jesus. Information about products and how to reach Buckner can be found at Make.sell.go on FaceBook.
Aidan Miller started Kwizera Coffee, which has an inspiring origin story. Miller has a passion for where he grew up in Rwanda and for helping others. Through his coffee sales, he is finding ways to help provide jobs and start programs for young people in Africa. Miller’s company continues to use coffee as a means to provide hope for others in the world. Kwizera Coffee is located in Nashville and has a website where coffee can be purchased.
“Kwizera in Kinyarwanda (the language of Rwanda) means ‘hope’ or ‘belief,” says Miller on that site, kwizeracoffee.com. “And above all we believe that we can use coffee as a means of hope creation and that coffee can be used to bring about greater change in this world.”