GREAT FALLS — Roe River Clothing is a family business in Great Falls owned by mother and daughter Judy Tucker and Jessi Oeleis. The clothing company offers stylish, trendy clothing using social media to showcase their items to customers.
Jessi wanted to come up with ways they could help the Great Falls community as many continue to deal with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Jessi says she felt blessed they already had an online platform to be able to continue operating while the pandemic harshly affected some businesses in the community.
They started by putting gift certificates and coupons for different Great Falls businesses in their shipments to their customers in hopes that they would in turn support those local businesses.
But Jessi wanted to do more, so they came up with Great Falls Strong; the t-shirts feature logos for businesses in Great Falls and Roe River is giving half of all profits back to the businesses.
Lucas Cyr, part owner of the Double Barrel Coffee House Café said a friend had reached out to him with the idea to make shirts to help their business during the coronavirus pandemic, but knew they needed help. He said, “Of course we don’t do clothing here at the Double Barrel, so I instantly thought of Jessi and her mom. Her being the person she is she just wanted to help and jumped right in and said yeah, we’ll do this. And we just kind of brainstormed and put it together and came up with Great Falls Strong idea and it’s all just really come together, and we’ve had a ton of support.”
Double Barrel was the first to sign on, and Jessi reached out to a few other businesses and the campaign took off from there. Now more than 40 businesses and organizations have signed on and they are in the process of adding more each day. Cyr also said some of the businesses involved have opted to donate the proceed they received to organizations around town.
If you are part of a business who would like to join the campaign, please email Jessi.roeriverclothing@gmail.com. They have put a deadline for organizations to sign on before Friday, May 8th. The shirts will be available for purchase through the following Friday, May 15th. Click here to visit the Roe River website.
The response from the community was almost overwhelming, to the point where they were backed up on orders. The shirts take about two weeks to ship from the purchase.
The shirts available currently are listed below.
Double Barrel Coffee House Cafe
Kneat Freaks
Schulte's 38th Street Store and Coffee House
5th and Wine
Pretty Active LLC
Borries Supper Club
Falls Woodwork
The High Plains Shop
Everyday IGA
Mrs Wrights Pastys
Heidelberg Lounge
Triangle Photography by Jenifer Lynn
Wassmann Enterprises
Precision Woodworks Inc.
3-D International
Pit Stop Tavern
The Gittin' Store Uniforms & More
Tracy's Family Diner
Aquasource Drilling
Black Eagle Brewery
True Brew Espresso
ilovethislife.org
Sip 'n Dip Great Falls
Jenny Craig
Great Falls Central Catholic High School Mustangs
The Hat Rack Styling Salon
Emily Lollar Photography, LLC
Clark and Lewie's
The Block Bar & Grill
Enbär
City Bar
Rise Athletics
