SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — An arts & crafts project is helping support aspiring artists in Brandon.
It’s a scene that plays out over and over in Teresa Schweitzer’s basement, cutting and sewing used coffee sacks.
“We have a whole bunch of leftover coffee bags from the coffee shop and so we decided to turn them into stockings,” Kingbird Coffee Shop’s Michael Gross said.
Michael Gross’ family owns Kingbird Coffee Shop in Brandon. They started selling the specialty stockings last year and were overwhelmed by the response.
“We could not keep up. We were up until 2:00, 3:00 in the morning some nights making stockings and finally we got to a point that we just said ‘we can’t do any more’. We probably could have done another hundred stockings,” Gross said.
After making and selling about a hundred stockings last year, the group plans to make even more this year with the money raised benefiting the Brandon Valley Art Department.
“I think it goes along with our theme of the coffee shop that art is very important and we want to continue having young artists be able to perfect their craft,” Gross said.
“It was a passion for me when I started at 8 years old,” Sioux Falls resident Teresa Schweitzer said.
Schweitzer’s art comes in the form of sewing, and she encourages everyone to dabble in the arts.
“Any art, anything you can express yourself is very important,” Schweitzer said.
Gross hopes the donation will result in art on the walls of Kingbird, where they display and sell anyone’s work.
“To have them get supplies to be able to make art to bring it to our coffee shop to be able to sell it, we can get that money back into the kids’ hands so they can become young entrepreneurs,” Gross said.
And you end up with a stocking.
The stockings are $20 apiece and will be available by Thanksgiving at Kingbird Coffee Shop in Brandon.
