You and Who’sday – 30 Cities in 90 Days – Buffaluck in Vegas, New Dawn in Denver

This is the sixth installment of a Tuesday feature (please pardon the tardiness,  jet lag is kicking in) documenting Dan Gigante’s nationwide tour on behalf of his Buffalo-based, community-driven apparel company.

By Dan Gigante, President, You and Who

We are headed into week five of “You and Who on JetBlue: 30 Cities in 90 Days,” starting in Burlington, Vermont, heading down to Baltimore mid-week, and then ending in the nation’s capital. This week also includes the first of many times I’ll be using Megabus to get from point A to B, in addition to the JetBlue flights. I’m starting to feel like I’m living out of “Trains, Planes & Automobiles.”

Last week, I was in Las Vegas and Denver for stops eight and nine, which started with flight number 777 into Las Vegas from Boston. The luck continued from there, mostly from connections I kept making with Buffalo. I was introduced to a friend of a friend who has been living in Las Vegas for over 15 years. He connected me with a great organization, After School All Stars (ASAS), who we are happy to be working with in the future. This is a national organization with locations in other U.S. cities, so we hope this relationship with the Las Vegas chapter will spread to the others located in cities on our tour. Not only were the folks at ASAS inviting and informative, but they also presented me with a shirt. I’m used to giving shirts, not receiving them – it was a great surprise!

In addition to ASAS, I was introduced to two other organizations that are doing some terrific things for the Las Vegas needy population. We need final blessing from management at both organizations before we can publicly announce their identity, which we hope to have soon.

There is one thing I do want to share about what one of these organizations had to offer that was different from any other shelter I have visited to date – they offer shelter for pets in addition to the shelter they provide for women and children. Upon explanation this made perfect sense – if a woman is a victim of domestic violence and also has pets, the woman’s love for her pets may make it more difficult to leave her home and seek refuge at a place where pets aren’t allowed. I was moved by this idea and thought this was a tremendous offering for these abused women and kids.

I had one final Buffalo connection in Vegas: I met with a Las Vegas artist who happened to be a Buffalo expat, which was unbeknownst to me when I first contacted him. We met at a hip coffee shop and bar in the Old Vegas strip near Fremont. While there, I noticed someone at the bar wearing a Tragically Hip shirt – it turns out he and his friends recently moved from Buffalo to Las Vegas to make a go of their music career. Throughout my travels around the country, and the world for that matter, the Buffalo connections never cease to amaze me.

Finally, I headed to Denver, where I visited three great organizations – St. Francis Center, Here’s Life Inner City, and the New Genesis Home. St. Francis is a day-time center that sees over 600 people every day. They had a novel idea for how guests could obtain clothing: upon completion of a chore, guests receive a slip that allows them to “buy” clothing for themselves. And last but certainly not least, one of the highlights of my trip: at New Genesis, I met Christian, a resident of the shelter who happens to be an artist and will be submitting a design for “Moving Forward.” The fact that not only can we provide Christian with new clothing that he needs, but also give him a platform to showcase his craft moves me beyond words.

One other thing that happened on this trip that was cool and has a Western New York connection – You and Who won the bidding on BidOnMyDay.com and Dan DeFelippi, of Rochester, met me in Las Vegas for 2 days worth of coding on the new YouAndWho.com. He’s a great guy and does great work, if you have any web-related (or other!) needs you should consider BidOnMyDay.com.

Next week brings us to Richmond, Raleigh and Charlotte. As always, if you know of any good organizations, artists, or retail shops in any of the cities, please get in touch. Cheers!