Licorice & Sloe Gave 10% Of Their Saturday Sales To Angell Animal Medical Center

On Saturday, December 22nd, Licorice & Sloe Tea House in Newburyport decided to do some of their own fundraising help us with ours. They pledged to give 10% of their sales on their historically busiest day of the year (the Saturday before Christmas) to Angell Animal Medical Center. Not only did Bil, Meg and Annie Silliker do that, but their staff for the day (Alex Foley, Nicole D'arco, Heidi Stump) generously donated their tips to Angell also! Here’s the email Bil sent on Sunday. We offer our thanks to all those involved!

Tom,

I hope your first day of hiking went well. As you are aware our sales in general have been down this Xmas season relative to the last two. The three snow storms have played their part in that, but we've remained hopeful and we're happy to report on today's efforts here at Licorice & Sloe Company.

First I wanted to mention that we created a “Friends of Atticus” dog biscuit jar. The
theory was that a customer could come buy a doggie biscuit for any donation. To that we added all of the tips of our staff today as they volunteered their tips to your cause as well. In that jar we collected $81.00.

I'd like to take a moment to mention that a few customers came in and made purchases today just to make sure that you would benefit from their purchase. I don't know if you know Pat Hickey or Steve & Kelly Parker, but they specifically mentioned your cause as the reason they were making certain purchases today. Kelly says that you might recall her as the gal who raises money for dogs. She says that you met her in the pet store one day. One couple, who we'll refer to as Ray and Carol (because those are their names) told me that they miss your paper. They didn't agree with everything you wrote, but they loved to read it. They made a nice donation to the doggie biscuit jar as well as making their tea and scone purchase. Also Tom Jones and his wife Terry were in and made a contribution, while we all waxed nostalgic about Tom Ryan.

As I started to write this it was 7:30 PM and had a half hour to go until end of day and we had just beaten last year’s numbers for the day by $5.00. All this holiday season our daily numbers have been coming up shy. I'm so happy that we actually have matched and now beat last years number for today as it makes me excited about the fact that we chose today to do this. Ultimately I had hoped that we'd do more than we've done since we lost so much on the three snowy days, but still the numbers are good relative to the season thus far.

It's now 6:50 AM on Sunday morning. I got enough customers after I started to write this that I stayed open until 9:30 and we managed to beat last year’s end of day numbers by $177.55. I know that doesn't sound like much, but two things to keep in mind: We sell tea for a living; and on a typical Saturday night between 6:00 and 8:00 I'm lucky to bring an extra $100.00 to the end of day numbers. So you can see why this was good news for me and of course for you and Angell Animal Medical Center.

Bil Silliker

Licorice & Sloe Company
21 Middle Street

Newburyport, MA
01950978-499-8327

*Editor’s Note: I have deleted the final total because it would show too much financial information about Licorice & Sloe and I think that is their own business. Angell Animal Medical Center will know the amount of their donation, however, and will be happy to receive this money.