Like a number of small businesses, the Covid-19 Pandemic has dramatically curtailed orders at Manitowoc Trophy on Washington Street.
Owner Jim Behnke tells Seehafer News the situation has cast doubt about the future of his business.
“It has affected our business totally with everything shutting down last March. We had to lay everybody off and we had to bring some of them back in case we did have orders coming through. I had to dig into our pockets and pay the employees even if we didn’t have anything for them to do–in the event orders came in.”
Behnke had this explanation to pinpoint their loss of business with respect to trophy and plaque orders.
“Just about everything that goes on didn’t go on and we pretty much take care of all of Manitowoc County school systems, and events like baseball tournaments, car shows, a lot of stuff was canceled.”
Jim explains he would like some help from those in the community in a special ‘vote’ to hopefully qualify for as much as a $30,000 grant offered by FedEx.
“We applied for it, they saw our story, we did a minute and a half video and we were accepted into that. Now, it’s done on votes and you can go on Manitowoc Trophy’s Facebook page or FedEx and vote just by entering your email address. Those are tabulated and go toward the grant.
You can vote once per day through next Wednesday, March 24th.
As for their business presently, Behnke said “We’re just scraping even right now and it’s been hard.” He’s been in business for 35-years and gave a lot of credit to the community for supporting them.
