About Us

                                         

                                             

                                       FOREVER GRATEFUL: 

About Us:

   "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach him to fish and he will be fed for a lifetime"

Forever Grateful is an idea that grew from an experience my wife Eppie and I had while building our home in TayTay Rizal in Metro Manila.  We lived together in Hong Kong prior to the handover in 1997, when we both worked.    25 years later, Eppie’s husband had passed and I was divorced and by almost chance, we re-united.  

Fast forward a couple years and we had built our modest home with the intention to winter in the Philippines.  Near the end of our road was a group of “Informal Settlers”.  These were people that had left the rural provinces to find a better life in the city.  Metro Manila has now swollen to 13 million with between 20% and 35% identified as living in informal homes as squatters. 

Tatay is the garment center of the Philippines with significant production, supported by a cottage industry of independent contractors often working from home to produce various clothing. A neighbor of ours had a couple of machines, and she would employ some of these workers to help.   Most needed training and the overall compensation was subsistence at best and inconsistent, but it helped keep their family fed. Eppie had worked in this industry and felt she could train them to either work for us or at least pick up work from local producers.  Either way, it would help as a little goes a long way, and gratitude is real and abundant in the Philippines.     

The circular pattern on the shirts was done by my best friend's older sister, Karen Sundberg, a good friend and accomplished artist, and the person responsible for introducing me to the dead at a young age some 43 years ago.  As you can see, the figures are supporting each other in a circle playfully and lovingly. 

I thought there were markets in the US where we could sell the goods, teach a trade, turn a profit, and raise the wages of these workers.    I hope to use the same art in other future projects, such as The Dead, and perhaps more importantly, those who follow them, provided such an inclusive vibe, that it was clear, this was the place to start. our journey.  Unfortunately, Karen passed too soon, but I trust her art will live on.

I was making my annual pilgrimage to see the Dead in Vegas.  This time was my second trip to the Sphere, but there have been many trips over the years.  I printed up 125 t-shirts before returning to the states to hand them out in hopes of getting enough donations to buy a few machines and pay for my shirts. I didn’t have a vendor license, and the point was to have fun.  In reality, all I wanted was to see if I could get people to the website and read the story.  If we had something, great.  If not, I gave out a few t-shirts to people I had spent a lifetime with, even though the faces changed with each concert.  

Please visit www.forevergrateful.shop and have a look.  Purchase a shirt, donate a couple bucks, share an idea or provide a contact, or just leave a comment of encouragement.  They all mean a great deal  to us in equal measure,  

Forever grateful, Roger and Eppie