Three sign shops within 10 miles of one another are using their talents to raise money for organizations helping people during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Two Waterford businesses, FASTSIGNS and Critical Signs, and one Niantic business, Sign Craft, have engineered creative ways to support front-line workers and donate money to worthy causes in recent weeks. The three stores are working alone, although the owners are aware of what the others are doing.

The details of each effort differ in terms of sign design and charity.

At Sign Craft, owner John Wilson is selling $10 signs, and $2 of every purchase goes to Care & Share of East Lyme, a volunteer organization providing “food, financial and emergency support to individuals and families in East Lyme, Niantic and Salem, Connecticut,” according to its website. The signs are cut into the shape of a heart and include a scallop shell in the middle.

Signs from the three outfits are meant to be symbols of appreciation for the people whose jobs can result in exposure to the virus. 

The common thought is that these are health care workers or emergency management employees, but Wilson noted that grocery, restaurant and other such workers are deserving of support as well.

Critical Signs owner Shawn Monahan put it this way: “It’s not just for first responders and health care workers, but for people working the cash register at the pet store or grocery store. The heart represents a hairdresser that wants to make money but isn’t allowed to go to work and has to be a stay-at-home mom.”

Monahan is giving $10 of every $20 sign to Interfaith Food Locker in Waterford. His signs bear big hearts with “Thank You” written in cursive across them.

Owner Tony Sabilia of Fast Signs, who is also a Ledyard town councilor, is selling signs for $20 with $10 going to Mask Makers in Connecticut, a grassroots group sewing and distributing masks for health care workers. The signs say “THANK YOU!” at the top then lists health care workers, police, firefighters and first responders followed by a heart and the phrase “All Essential Workers.”

The three men chose to assist local organizations.

“It’s a great feeling that you can work in the town where you, your family, your daughters have grown up, and then if something like this happens, you can give back to your town,” said Wilson, a lifelong Niantic resident. “We keep the cost at the bare bones just to cover materials, and we donate to this Care and Share group in town that is going to have even more people that need help than usual.”

Sabilia, who said he knows Maze Stephan, the Mask Makers group founder, noted that this initiative is a personal one.

“My oldest son is a police officer in New Britain. I wanted to get him some masks, and I knew Maze Stephan and a group of people in Ledyard making masks,” Sabilia said. “I reached out to Maze asking for masks for my son, and I got to talking to her, and she told me all the materials they were using were coming out of folks’ pockets. I was like, ‘I think I could help you with that.’”

Monahan, like Wilson and Sabilia, is deeply involved in the local area.

“I had a customer call me up and ask if I’d be willing to make a few signs with a heart and a ‘thank you,’ and I had woken up that morning thinking, ‘What could I do to make a difference in the community?’” Monahan said. “With that thought in my head, followed by that gentlemen’s phone call, within hours it clicked: 'Here’s a way that this company can benefit southeastern Connecticut.’”

The three men were all searching for some way to help.

“I think people are looking for reasons to help,” Sabilia said. “I don’t sell or make masks, but I can make signs.”

The three businessmen said residents and people from across the state want to help those in need and support essential workers.

As of Sunday, Wilson said his business has sold more than 950 signs and continues to receive new orders and has sold as many as 100 signs a day.

Monahan cut a $2,400 check to the food locker on Friday. He has taken his enterprise on the road, holding a pop-up event last week at the Groton Bowling Center, where he sold signs. Part of the proceeds went to Groton food pantries. He hopes to continue this campaign in nearby towns.

Sabilia said he told Stephan he’d get her group at least $500, but he expects to exceed that number.

Wilson, Monahan and Sabilia all said some customers have come to purchase signs, then decided to buy extra for neighbors or family members.

All three said this is not a money-making exercise. For example, the Mask Makers group Sabilia donated to is not technically a 501(c)(3), so he won’t get a tax write-off. Wilson has been mass-producing these signs, which he doesn’t normally do.

“If anything, I’m definitely losing money, but I’m feeding my heart and other people in the area,” Monahan said. “People who are doing OK need to make our tables longer, not build our fences taller.”

s.spinella@theday.com