SANDY — Shortly after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Sandy business owner Wendy Benson decided she wanted to do something to help the families of the victims.
Benson, owner of Koala-Tees & Sports, 9548 S. 500 West, began experimenting with different graphic designs at her office in search of one to print on a T-shirt.
Now, Benson's simple idea has become one of the hottest-selling items in the valley. Since Saturday, Benson has sold more than 10,000 shirts and is backlogged another 5,000 orders.
She said in less than a week she has raised nearly $40,000 for the families of firefighters who lost their lives in New York.
"It's insane. It's quite insane," Benson said.
Printed on the front of the white T-shirt is the American flag with the stripes hanging vertically. "I turned it the way it draped over the Pentagon wall," Benson said.
At the top of the flag printed in red letters is "USA." Around the border of the flag are the words "strength, courage, compassion."
The back of the shirt reads, "American people unite . . . In honor of those who lost their lives during the attack against our country. 9-11"
The shirts are being sold for $6 each at Koala and all fire stations in Sandy. Three dollars goes to paying for printing supplies and the rest is for the victims' families.
The tricky part for the public is finding a fire station that still has the shirts in stock.
"I can't keep them in our fire stations," said Rick Hofheins, president of the Fireman's Association for Sandy city. "It's unbelievable the support that's come out for this. It's awesome."
Benson said when she started printing, her shirt supplier had 15,000 shirts in stock. At first she thought that would be plenty. But she quickly discovered otherwise.
Now, Benson is forced to order shirts from Nevada and California just to fill the demand.
At one point this week, Benson and the fire departments were selling up to 3,000 shirts a day, Hofheins said.
The emergency room at Alta View Hospital bought 500 shirts, he said. Nurses who were visiting Utah from Dallas and Washington, D.C., also heard about the shirts and bought case loads to take back with them, Hofheins said.
Printing the shirts has become a 14- to 15-hour-a-day job, Benson said. It's become so busy that firefighters are coming to her store on their days off to help with the printing.
For three nights in a row Sandy Fire Chief Don Chase was there with his wife printing shirts.
"I feel so good that I almost started crying on the way to work today. Just to think about what's happening got me teary eyed," Benson said.
But Benson said she's also very proud of the success of her shirts. And she says staying busy helps her not to dwell on the tragedy and the suffering of the victims' families.
E-MAIL: preavy@desnews.com