Help Us Rebuild Diamond Brand Gear

My name is John Delaloye and I am the last remaining employee of Diamond Brand Gear. Tropical Storm Helene flooded our factory in Fletcher with almost three feet of water throughout. We lost all of our equipment and inventory. Within a few days of the disaster, I had to let go of all of our 35 employees and terminate our lease. In the aftermath of this storm, I believe we can recover, but we need your help.

We are a quintessential small business. We financed the business with our own money; we know all of our employees by name, pay them a living wage, and provide subsidized healthcare (or at least we did before 9/27); we care for our customers like they are members of our Diamond Brand family; we invest most of our free time working in our business to do what we can to make it successful.

I have tried to apply for every small business grant that I can find and continue to be denied funding because we apparently are not small enough. Go figure. I have also reached out directly to these entities to see if they will reconsider their eligibility requirements, and they have all said no. That's why we need you.

Your contribution will go toward helping me rehire some key employees, so we have a fighting chance of getting back up and running by the end of this month. We have been around for over 143 years because we are creative and hard-working. If we can get a little boost and start to rebuild our team, you'll be amazed at what we do.

Thank you for your consideration from the bottom of my heart!