A coffee company is raising money for Arlington County, Virginia, firefighters by brewing up some funds with a unique way to donate.
“Everybody loves it because we’re not just walking in and handing them a check saying, ‘Hey, thanks for your service,'” said Jason Patton, senior vice president of Fire Department Coffee.
He said that they started their Fire Department Coffee Club about a year ago to raise money for sick and injured firefighters by picking a different department to raise funds for each month.
This month features the first from the D.C. area: the Arlington County Fire Department.
“We create a custom logo. We work with their members to do something that pays homage back to their fire department or the history of it. We create a custom coffee blend,” he said.
The logo created for Arlington features a firefighter carrying the American Flag. It is both on the bag of coffee and on a T-shirt, with $5 from each shirt sale and $2 from each coffee bag going directly to the Arlington Fire Department.
“We wanted to make the base of fire department coffee, giving back to our fellow brothers and sisters,” he said.
“They get the design, a shirt and a coffee bag that truly speaks to who they are as firefighters and where their departments have come from.”
Fire Department Coffee was founded in 2016 by Navy veteran Luke Schneider and is run by firefighters.
As a firefighter himself, Patton says he’s grateful for the opportunity to help out others. He said that he hopes to help injured firefighters, but also help those who need support for their mental health.
“We can give directly to those who need it the most,” Patton said.
“I am super passionate about mental health and we want to make sure that if somebody needs to go to a treatment facility or if they just need to go to a therapist and they don’t have the money that we can help them in that process.”
Find more information on the fundraiser here.
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