By Jenn Watt
Published June 8 2017

It took 24 hours for the customers of Indigodragonfly to raise more than $3300 to help people in Minden get back on their feet after the community was flooded last month.

The local hand-dyed yarn company had helped out when the community was flooded in 2013 by creating a special colourway called “Canoe Up to the Beer Store” said Indigodragonfly owner Kim McBrien. When this year’s flooding started she said the customers were immediately asking her and her spouse and business partner Ron Evans about what they could do to help again.
“Many of our customers have been to our studio attend our annual open house in August listen to Ron’s show on Canoe and have developed a connection to our home community. So we created a way for them to help again” she said.

On May 26 the company pledged to donate 25 per cent of all sales (both online and in-studio) to flood relief. They also set up a place on their website www.indigodragonfly.ca where people could make direct donations. All of the money is going to the Minden Food Bank.

“Ron and I came to Minden to see for ourselves what the town was dealing with. And we kept up to date on the Minden Hills postings about what was happening in terms of the flood what help was needed and where donations should be directed in order to do the most good” she said. The municipality was directing donations to the Red Cross and the food bank. McBrien and Evans decided to choose the food bank.

McBrien explained that Indigodragonfly already donates regularly setting aside a portion of every sale that goes to sponsor events or help charity.
“Indigodragonfly is about community and we define ‘community’ in three ways: local (because charity starts at home) Canadian (because home doesn’t end at the county line) and international like our customer base (because we’re all in this together)” she said.