Wear Your Support – Coming Soon!

What started with the idea of making a couple of shirts for the Heather Doherty Benefit has turned into apparel, tote bags, buttons, stickers and posters.

But the merch isn't just something to sell at the show.

Every piece was created specifically for the benefit, and money raised from it goes toward helping Heather recover after the fire that destroyed her home.

So if you can't make it to Society Clubhouse on November 1st—or if you can make it but believe no human being can ever own too many black T-shirts—this is another way to help.

We'll be keeping the e-store up until December 31st, so you'll have lots of time to make your purchase and show your support, even after the benefit is done. 

Why Make Benefit Merch?

There are only so many times you can ask people to share the same GoFundMe link.

The fundraiser remains incredibly important (we're about 94% towards our goals), but we wanted to create more ways for people to participate.

A benefit show was one.

The silent auction was another.

Then came the merch.

The idea was to make things people would actually want to wear and keep long after November 1st. Not a corporate fundraiser shirt with a tiny logo over the left breast. Not something that screams, "I participated in an organized charitable activity."

We wanted things that look like they could have been pulled out of a merch box that's been sitting underneath a stage since 1997.

The fact that buying one also helps Heather is the important part.

Good Songs for Good Neighbours 

This became the unofficial slogan for the entire benefit almost immediately.

Good Songs for Good Neighbours.

That's essentially the whole idea behind November 1st in five words.

The circumstances are awful. The response doesn't have to be.

Wev've got other slogans too: Good Music for Bad Times, and Trial by Fire

The designs lean heavily into old concert-shirt territory: distressed lettering, stars, limited colours and Harley planted directly in the middle of everything.

There are a few versions because.. why not!?

Some are stripped down and graphic. Others surround Harley with daisies and wildflowers. But they all belong to the same slightly battered imaginary band-merch universe.

And yes, Harley's name is on her tag.

She deserves credit.

Good Songs for Good Neighbours

Good Songs for Good Neighbours is about why the show exists in the first place.

Heather has been part of the Roncesvalles community for years. She ran Maggie's Farm on Roncesvalles for about 15 years, and that history has become a big part of putting this benefit together.

Local businesses are contributing to the silent auction. Musicians are volunteering their time. Friends and neighbours are sharing the fundraiser and helping us pull everything together.

So the designs went in a softer, folkier direction.

Harley sits among daisies, pink flowers and greenery beside a pink acoustic guitar (to be auctioned off at the show). It's still distressed and a little bit rock-and-roll, but it's probably the closest this particular operation is getting to wholesome.

Good Music for Bad Times

Then there’s Good Music for Bad Times.

This one might be the simplest explanation of the whole benefit.

Sometimes things are bad. Really bad. And there isn’t much you can say that makes them less bad.

But you can show up.

You can fill a room with bands. You can buy a shirt or throw some money into a donation jar. You can have a drink with your neighbours. You can make a ridiculous amount of noise for a few hours and turn that noise into something useful.

That’s where Good Music for Bad Times came from.

It isn't supposed to suggest that music fixes anything. It can't rebuild a house or replace everything that was lost in a fire. It doesn't make starting over without insurance any less overwhelming.

But music is very good at giving people a reason to gather, and once you get enough people into the same room, you can do something.

So: good music.

Bad times.

And hopefully, a little help.

Drink Locally. Panic Collectively.

This one might require less explanation.

Drink Locally. Panic Collectively.

There's a pint glass.

There are stars.

There is a general sense that everything might be going slightly off the rails.

It seemed appropriate.

It's also a nod to the neighbourhood bars, venues and gathering places where people actually meet one another—the places where benefit shows like this can happen in the first place.

November 1st is going to involve a lot of live music and a fairly enthusiastic drinking crowd, so consider this our unofficial uniform.

Trial by Fire

Then there's the phoenix.

The Trial by Fire design is different from the Harley pieces but probably the most directly connected to the reason we're doing any of this.

A phoenix rises through flames surrounded by roses, stars and big sweeping wings.

It's deliberately dramatic.

If you're going to put a phoenix on merch, subtlety seems like a wasted opportunity.

The design isn't meant to turn what happened to Heather into some neat inspirational story. Losing your home is terrible. Starting over without insurance is terrible. There doesn't have to be a silver lining wrapped around it.

But there is something appropriate about an image associated with surviving destruction and continuing anyway.

So the phoenix stayed.

And Then There Was Harley

We should probably address the obvious.

Harley is everywhere.

Harley survived the fire with Heather, and somewhere during the process of making the first benefit poster, her face became part of the visual identity of the event.

Then we put her on a shirt.

Then another shirt.

Then buttons.

Then stickers.

At this point, we've simply accepted that the Heather Doherty Benefit has a mascot.

Harley has not been consulted about this arrangement.

Her compensation package remains under review.

Shirts, Totes, Hats, Buttons, Stickers and Posters

We're making the designs available across a mix of benefit merch rather than limiting everything to T-shirts.

There will be apparel, hats, and tote bags, along with smaller things like buttons and stickers for anyone who wants to contribute without buying a shirt.

We're also making benefit posters, including artwork based on the Good Songs for Good Neighbours event design.

Some of the smaller pieces are especially important to us because we want there to be something at the merch table at different price points.

You shouldn't need a big budget to participate.

Buy a button.

Grab a sticker.

Pick up a poster.

Get a tote.

Or go home with another black T-shirt even though you promised yourself you weren't going to buy another black T-shirt.

We understand.

Maggie’s Farm Is Coming Back

For one day, Maggie’s Farm is coming back.

Before the fire, before all of this, there was Maggie’s Farm.

It was one of those small neighbourhood businesses that became part of the landscape — the kind of place people remember years after they’ve moved away, because places like that end up attached to a particular period of your life.

So it felt important that Maggie’s Farm have a place at the benefit.

It isn’t a reopening. It isn’t pretending that everything can simply go back to the way it was.

It’s just Maggie’s Farm, for an afternoon.

And if you remember the shop, you can stop by, say hello and see Heather on the other side of the counter again.

For a few hours, at least, Maggie’s Farm is back.

Where the Money Goes

The point behind all of this is Heather.

Money raised through benefit merch joins the money being raised through the GoFundMe and the November 1st event to help with the aftermath of the fire.

Heather was uninsured, so recovery hasn't meant handing everything over to an insurance company and waiting for restoration work to begin.

There are immediate living expenses and temporary housing costs. Everyday belongings need to be replaced. The house itself still requires cleanup, rubble removal, mould remediation and electrical and plumbing work.

And, as anyone who has ever dealt with a damaged house knows, fixing one problem has an annoying habit of revealing three more.

That's what the fundraiser is helping with.

Wear the Benefit

We'll have merch available as part of the Heather Doherty Benefit, and we're also making selected pieces available through the benefit shop.

Buy something because you like the design.

Buy something because you want to help Heather.

Buy something because Harley has stared directly into your soul and you now feel contractually obligated to own her face on a T-shirt.

We're not particular about your reasoning.

What matters is that all of these little things add up.

A ticket.

A donation.

A silent-auction bid.

A tote bag.

A couple of buttons.

A shirt.

None of them fixes everything by itself.

Together, they help.

And if we're going to get through some bad times, we might as well have some good shirts.

Shop the Heather Doherty Benefit collection and help us raise money for Heather's recovery. Coming Soon!!!