Business is down nearly 70 percent at The Hidden Treasure 2 and the owners hope a Go Fund Me effort will help the craft store recoup at least some of their losses caused by the COVID-19 crisis.
“It’s been tough, real tough,” Jeff Noonan, co-owner of the store, said. “We’ll have to see how things go with the Go Fund Me. But we have to be optimistic.”
The store is asking for $60,000 in donations to recover some of the cost of the materials the store has given out for masks as part of its “Mask Up Mission” project. A little over $2,700 has been donated since the Go Fund Me campaign started.
So far, the craft store has handed out over 31,800 free masks to schools, nursing facilities, businesses, pre-schools, dentist offices, the area’s first responders and just members of the general public, Noonan said.
“The Mask Up Mission” is still ongoing,” Noonan said. “There is still a lot of need out there.”
Business at the store has also been hurt by a lack of foot traffic inside the store. “Our customers, when they do go out, want something very specific...like for instance red fabric..then they leave without shopping some more.”
The Hidden Treasure’s classes were also cancelled because of COVID-19 which was also a solid revenue source, Noonan said. “We didn’t have our summer camp for kids, and that hurt us as well. It’s just been tough going for us.”
He hopes the store can restart classes and open its studio by mid-September, Noonan said. “But that will be dependent on a lot of things, COVID related,” he said.
Some big orders for masks have been put on hold after the St. Vrain Valley School District decided to go to all online learning when classes begin on Aug. 18.
But mask requests are still coming in from schools in surrounding districts, including Frederick, Firestone and Gilcrest as well as for local nonprofits, he said.
The store provided over 150 masks for adults and children at the Longmont Youth Center. “Everytime they feed the kids, they hand out masks so everyone can be safe,” Noonan said.
The Hidden Treasure 2 is also making masks for a military veteran’s facility in Aurora. Another order recently came in from a senior resident center for gowns.
“Our business is down but the requests are coming in from everywhere,” said Noonan. “And we will not ignore those needs.”
