Nancy Pomykal (left) and Emma Raby (right) donate to The Harbor on behalf of “Proud to be a Port O’Connor Woman”. Accepting the donation is Maria Flores, Harbor Director.
July 10th was a rewarding day for two Port O’Connor sisters, Emma Raby and Nancy Pomykal. The two are shown above presenting a check to Maria Flores, director of the Harbor in Port Lavaca. The check represents proceeds from the sale of t-shirts to women from the PROUD TO BE A PORT O’CONNOR WOMAN GROUP. The Harbor is a local advocate for women and children who have suffered from abuse, family violence or neglect.
An article written by Emma was published in the Dolphin talk on March 9th, 2012. In the article, Emma explained why so many outstanding, professional women have chosen to make Port O’Connor their home. The article received such a warm response, Nancy thought how nice it would be if the local ladies of Port O’Connor had t-shirts to show their Port O’Connor pride. She talked to Rose Stringo, a local woman who owns a small embroidery business, and together they came up with a great logo for the hot pink and lime green t-shirts. The shirts are sold in several styles. Nancy & Rose wanted to do something worthwhile with proceeds from the sale of the shirts. “We decided to donate a portion of the sales to the Harbor because it is local and it benefits women and children. We felt it would be very appropriate to give the proceeds to such a benevolent organization. We knew the shirts probably wouldn’t raise a lot of money, but we wanted to donate whatever we could” Nancy said.
In early April the three decided to start a face book group titled “Proud to Be a Port O’Connor Woman. A copy of the original article was posted to the page along with an explanation of what the group was about and inviting P.O. C women to join with all their photos and comments about living in Port O’Connor. Within 24 hours the group had grown to more than 80 members. By the end of April, the FB group had grown to 214 members. Today, July 23, the group has 236 members. The members consist of women from all walks of life who live in POC, grew up in POC, or lived there and are living elsewhere. Most of the ladies who don’t reside there say “I’ll ALWAYS be a Port O’Connor woman at heart.”
Approximately 60 t-shirts have been sold to date. After the expenses for screen print, freight, and tax, the donation for each shirt came to approximately $1.67 for each shirt. Rose donated $100.00 from the proceeds to the Harbor. Nancy matched it with $100.00, which brought the donation for each shirt around $3.34. Rose donated ALL her labor. “We want to thank everyone who purchased a shirt and let them know shirts are still available, the ladies said.”
A GREAT BIG “THANKS” to ALL the Port O’Connor women who purchased a shirt. By purchasing the fun t-shirts, showing your POC pride, you have helped a very valuable organization. Every little bit helps. The staff at the Harbor thanks you also. They are very gracious and appreciative of the gift.
T-shirt Logo
