Vista company donates 150,000 T-shirts to tsunami victims

By: CANDICE REED - For the North County Times | Wednesday, February 2, 2005 12:11 AM PST ∞

VISTA ----- There is no sign outside the 40,000-square-foot building in the Vista industrial park promoting Top Heavy Clothing, a company that designs graphics for T-shirts that sell at high-profile stores such as Sears, Mervyn's and JCPenney.

In fact, the company is so low-key that when CEO Tadd Chilcott recently decided to donate more than 150,000 T-shirts to the victims of the tsunami that hit Southeast Asia in December, no one outside of the company except for a monk in Los Angeles knew about the good deed.

"I was in a position to help out, so I did,' said Chilcott. "I didn't have much cash on hand to give, so I did the next best thing. It's no big deal."

After traveling to parts of Asia on business last year, Chilcott felt compelled to help.

"Can you imagine living through the tsunami, but then finding yourself homeless with only the clothes on your back?" he said. "I gave T-shirts, which isn't a huge deal. But when you have nothing left, it can help."

Last month, organizers working on behalf of Dharma Vijaya Buddhist Vihara in Los Angeles came to pick up the shirts, which ranged in size from smalls for boys to extra-large for men. The clothes filled up three large shipping containers and were worth about $600,000.

"Mr. Tadd is a marvelous man because he gave so much," said Walpola Piyananda, a monk at the Los Angeles temple. "We were very happy when he called us, and we appreciate his generosity."

The shirts left on a ship around the middle of last month for Sri Lanka.

Chilcott travels each day from his home in Temecula to his company of about 75 employees that he founded in 1994. The company is a design house for men's and boys T-shirts, and although Chilcott often outsources his product to be manufactured elsewhere, he has never used companies in the area hit hard by the disaster.

"I was in the area looking at companies four weeks before the wave hit," he said. "I couldn't believe that it happened and I still can't. I donated because it was the right thing to do."

The company hopes to continue to give to charities and encourages other businesses in the area to follow its example.

"People think they have to donate cash and they're often reluctant," he said. "But there are a lot of clothing manufacturers within a 5-mile radius of us that could do the same thing. We need to get the word out that there are people in need and almost anyone can help. If we can do it, almost anyone can."

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