An Idea Worth Sharing!

PNC2020
5% off for you, 10% to charity

Mystic is a tourist community, we can use your help. Share what you already love with your friends around the country. 

Our dream community is exceptionally impacted by our commitment to shelter in place.  Downtown Mystic closed to the public even before the official order from our governor.  We all put your safety and the impact before our own ability to stay in business. 

As with other tourism locations, we are at the end of our off season, and as usual we anticipate a great summer.

Taking this crisis seriously is paying a toll on many of us.  It's time to do our part.  We are a community.

We have an opportunity to serve:  Mystic Knotwork is stocked up, more knots than most of my customers could imagine.  

I spoke with Danielle Chesebrough, our First Selectman yesterday and she agreed that the Pawcatuck Neighborhood Center is a great place to support.  I intend to keep my employees paid.  I also intend to bolster our neighborhood food bank.  To learn more about the amazing resource the PNC is and to see how they are much more than a food bank, check them out.

Because of the situation we are in, Mystic Knotwork can serve as a lifeline for our local food bank, the Pawcatuck Neighborhood Center. 

Mystic Knotwork has, quietly, given to charities that encourage our youth to get on the water, enjoy nature, and learn to keep it clean.  Our mission is to create a respect for the world we all call home.  Last year, we gave thousands to charity, but we don't wear that on our sleeve, until now.

I'm asking you, personally, to share the word.  If you know anyone that is into nautical and New England traditions, encourage them to pass the word. Connect with friends and family around the country.

Mystic Knotwork will be part of the solution. 

Will you join us?

How you can Help:

1.  Tell the world:

If you know anyone that is a lover of nautical and New England artisan work give them this coupon code.  Ask them to share our coupon pictures below through Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook.  Or send them a link to this blog.

2.  If you know an influencer:

Ask them to donate space on their blog or Instagram, getting the word out is key here.

3.  If you love our work and aren't heavily impacted:

Buy from us, use the coupon code (or not).. 10% of our sales on this site will go to the Pawcatuck Neighborhood Center even if you forget.  Yes, the coupon is small, but I am also trying to pay employees that are 'sheltered in place at home' and not here able to help with the work itself.

4.  If you love our work but are in similar need:

Please, just let your friends around know.  We are here to help, and I do NOT want you to put yourself in a tighter bind.  We are all in this together.

5.  If you are looking for an opportunity to connect with friends and family:

This mission is a great excuse to call your friends or connect through social media.  This is a positive topic in a deeply troubling and negative situation.  We need to be there for each other and the network of friends you've developed over the years is key to our mental health.

By reading even this far, I am grateful for your interest.  Let's get through this Covid-19 situation and find our world in a better place for the ordeal.

If anyone wants to help by creating more graphics, share and tag them up on IG, email them to me, and I'll try to add them here.  If things go well, it will be just the family shipping and hopefully I'll be too busy serving to do continual updates.

The success of this depends on you, my local community, and our community of boaters to get the word out.

Below are more rough wordings as I was talking to other people, I want to do this in the most raw and candid way possible.

Drive me insane with a workload shipping.  You got this !
Thank you for your continuous love and support,
Matt

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below is a LOT of details on the conditions in Mystic and our shop, we are excited for the summer, and I want to make that summer excellent for our team of artisans.
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Can you help, are you in a position to help the town of dreams,

Mystic

These are statements of fact, and not intended to be remotely political. Please respect that.

We were in a spin this weekend. Things are in constant flux, so I'm not upset at the man, but our state Governor, Ned Lamont, promised on a conference call on Thursday there would be no business closure order.

At 3pm Friday, the order came through the media, but it wasn't until 10pm we saw the first line of text on the state website. Further explanation came out on Saturday, but the explanation out on Sunday at 10pm was the most hopeful. Let me share why,

We were mandated to 'close' and drop staffing buy 100% on Friday. That was amended on Sunday night to allow "remote sales and mail operations to continue with minimal staff."

That all happened AFTER I was directed by the state to give furlough notices to the team. With the ability for Jill and I (husband and wife) to operate the whole Mystic Knotwork system as a mail order fulfillment house, we have cut our staff down all the way while still able to serve.

We are one of the very few businesses in Mystic that is equipped to do this. Mystic Knotwork is in a weird spot. We have our entire winter inventory made and ready, but we have no workforce helping make more. It will be just Jill and I until April 22, or until the order is rescinded.

It's my goal to use whatever sales we can make to cover payroll for my team and the rent for the shops. If there is any additional money, that will be used to extend the ability to pay. I'll be honest, it feels weird to be working alone in a shop usually abuzz with activity, but I want our team to pay their bills.

The entire country is working through this, and our nation and world will be a stronger and better place once this is behind us. The closer we follow the medical guidance, the faster it's behind us.

At Mystic Knotwork, since last week, we have had our doors closed to the public. The universally agreed upon thesis that 'social distance' is the secret to stop the spread of this virus and keep the load off the hospital system. With a 93 year old grandmother and two ill parents in law, this is especially important to me.

Even when we were fully staffed, we've had hand sanitize everywhere, my daughter is addicted to the stuff. As the guidance was getting tighter, we started preparing for 'something.' We brought in a LOT of raw materials, we worked harder than usual all winter to be ready, but we couldn't anticipate this.

We are following antiseptic and disease control processes that extend from our business through our personal space and into the care of our elderly family. The shop doors are all locked, front and back. Chuck and Jeff our mail and UPS partners aren't allowed past the locked door out back, we wipe down when we arrive every morning and its fully cleanliness standards all day. I love you all, but I will not be the person that gives my grandmother an illness. Our disinfecting practices are life and death.

Please share your love for Mystic Knotwork.

I'm working on literature to help fund our local food bank. Those details will be out this week, I want to be sure we do it right. (Pawcatuck Neighborhood Center for those wondering).

We have a LOT of knots we can sell, and the towns economy is crushed pretty flat with the closure of hotels and the public 'non essential' retail shops that are owned by friends. We need to be part of the lifeline that saves our town for the next few months.

Will you help, can you help?

Be good to yourselves, be safe, and if your community is struggling, please help your own town. If you are fortunate and LOVE Mystic, please help us be part of this solution....

I wrote this stream of consciousness, so don't beat me up too much, Jill and I will be a lifeline for our employees and town.

Will you help?

Now is the time to buy something you've always wanted, or gift to someone that loves Mystic and our nautical traditions.

Thank you,
Matt

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to my local friends:

Opportunity to serve:

Thanks to the guidelines set by Governor Lamont and the unique position Mystic Knotwork, llc is in, we can provide some funding to the Pawcatuck Neighborhood Center.

Guidelines laid out yesterday, March 23, 2020 allow for ‘remote ordering and delivery.’  We still will NOT open to the public or provide local direct service, as a safety precaution, however:

MYSTIC KNOTWORK IS SHIPPING

Matt created a coupon code:  PNC2020 that will give 5% off.  April 1 - May 1, we will look at the coupon code use and give 10% of the sales to the Pawcatuck Neighborhood Center to help with servicing those people hurt during this Covid-19 Crisis.

Hold off on local purchases until this all passes. We are still closed to the public.

Please share the coupon with people in less affected areas, or people that love Mystic and enjoy the sort of work we do.  We can’t bring the money in for the PNC without help.

Rest assured, our raw material was stocked up back in November and January and no raw materials came on site since the pandemic started exploding.  Our raw materials are all made right here in the USA. 

We have THOUSANDS of knots available to ship, and I’d like to use that resource to free up some money to support the Pawcatuck Neighborhood Center, and my own employees.  (our payroll went out today, the next is in 2 weeks.  I’d like to pay them full wages as furloughed---keeping our unemployment costs out of the state’s budget crisis)

The shop staff consists of Matt and Jill only (and Betsy Mongrel).  No other employee, contractor, or outside person is allowed in the building. We are maintaining the highest hygienic and social distancing standards possible.

Non-essential retailers may be staffed on site, provided that they offer remote ordering (e.g. phone, internet, mail, dropbox) and delivery or curb-side pick-up; • Non-essential businesses and nonprofits to allow staff or third patties on site to the minimum extent necessary to provide security, maintenance, and receipt of mail and packages, or other services deemed essential.  -https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/Coronavirus/COVID-19-FAQs.pdf?la=en  (page 5)

Summertime will be here soon

 Downtown Traffic, Mystic Style

Red 36, the place to be in the summer

This is what we are seeing in town right now. 

We are all safely sheltered in place (and a lot of people temporarily without jobs) 

Liberty Pole and the Anchor by Mystic Knotwork

This is the popular spot in Mystic to park.  Mystic Museum of Art's lot is behind all the shops on the west side of Downtown Mystic

 First time I've ever seen the Red 36 Parking Lot empty