Dana Gordon, owner of West Hartford’s Sedgwick Cleaners, hopes the community will invest in the longtime family business.

By Ronni Newton

Sedgwick Cleaners has been owned by Dana Gordon’s family for over 30 years, but the past few years have been tough.

Although a greater percentage of clothing worn on a daily basis is washable, Gordon believes that wearing a “perfectly pressed shirt” will never fail to make that all-important first impression. And no matter how skilled you are at ironing, a professionally pressed shirt stands out.

Gordon needs to purchase new equipment to efficiently create those perfectly pressed shirts, and rather than incurring additional debt through a bank loan, he has taken an unconventional approach to raising the necessary capital.

Gordon is using Kickstarter, an online site that uses crowd funding to finance projects, and hopes to raise the funds to purchase the needed equipment. His humorous and entertaining video, appropriately entitled “Pressing the Perfect Shirt,” explains the projects and the rewards that donors will receive.

The goal was to raise $3,500 in 40 days, and as of August 23 (35 days into the effort), Gordon reported that $2,131 (61 percent) has been raised. If the entire project is not funded within 40 days, the project won’t receive any funding at all.

“Small businesses are the backbone of a community and this is your opportunity to help a small business that is very committed to giving back to the West Hartford community,” said Gordon.

And there are rewards for those who participate:

• If you pledge $10 to this project your name will go up on a plate as a backer of this project on a larger plaque on the Sedgwick Cleaners Wall of Fame.
• A $15 pledge gets your name on the plaque and three perfectly pressed shirts at no charge.
• A $25 pledge gets your name on the plaque and six perfectly pressed shirts at no charge.

To watch the video and/or pledge to this project visit: http://kck.st/1nbWu1N