Joliet resident creates online T-shirt fundraiser for Coal City tornado relief

JOLIET – Courtney Kantor could not take off work to join volunteers in Coal City last Friday to help those affected by the June 22 tornado – but she wanted to do something for her hometown.

Coal City is where her family and friends live. Many of her friends lost their homes. So Kantor, who lives in Joliet, created a T-shirt bearing the colors of the high school football team so she could sell them in an online fundraiser to help people affected by the tornado.

“I had to find a way to really help out. It’s a small community. When you’ve been there for so long, it’s like a family,” Kantor said.

As of Tuesday morning, 516 T-shirts were sold and $6,720 was raised. Money from the fundraiser is to be donated to the Community Foundation of Grundy County for the Coal City tornado disaster relief fund.

Kantor, who works at Argonne National Laboratory, said when she came up with the design of the T-shirt, she wanted something “that was going to represent Coal City and show we’re really Coal City strong.”

The back of the T-shirt shows the state with a red star for Coal City to let people know where the village is located. The green and yellow colors are based on the Coal City High School football team. Kantor said when people are in the area during the football season, those are the only colors people wear.

Kantor said the fundraiser isn’t for her, but the people affected by the tornado, as well as to give others such as herself a way to help out.

Kantor and her family haven’t lived in Coal City for several years, but she is trying to move back because of the “homey feel.” She said she hasn’t visited the parts of the village that were ravaged by the tornado because they were blocked off – but what she could see of the areas she grew up in left her shocked.

“I stood where the tornado went through,” she said. “To see it all gone is unbelievable.”

–––––

KNOW MORE
To see the fundraiser, visit booster.com/coal_city_tornado