Steve Ahillen

USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee

Jed Dance remembers when online sales began for the “Smokies Strong” T-shirt.

“We had 14,000 orders,” said Dance, president of Bacon and Company Inc. of Knoxville. “It crashed our server.”

The T-shirts to help the victims of the wildfire that ravaged the Gatlinburg area on Nov. 28 was soon also flying off the shelves at retail outlets. Dance said he had to bring everybody, including family members, in to help fill the orders.

More than 80,000 T-shirts have been sold, by far Bacon and Company’s highest selling T-shirt.

The project, promoted by the Knoxville News Sentinel and WBIR-TV, has raised an estimated $675,000.

A check for $200,000 was given to the American Red Cross in December. On Thursday, checks of $236,000 each were given to the Dollywood Foundation and Friends of the Smokies in an informal presentation at Bacon and Company Inc.

“Obviously, the amount we received today was surprising and overwhelming,” said David Dotson, president of the Dollywood Foundation. “It is with the pattern for us of people’s generosity being more than we can imagine.”

“We are overwhelmed by the response,” said Jim Hart, president of Friends of the Smokies. “We never in our wildest dreams would have imagined that we would be getting a check for $236,000 from this one source. It’s just amazing.”

Dance said the idea for the T-shirt came almost immediately after the fire.

“When the fire broke out, obviously this is our business. Our staff said let’s do a T-shirt to commemorate the Smokies,” he said. “We called the News Sentinel and WBIR and they agreed. They liked the idea.”

“We (the News Sentinel and WBIR) were both looking for ways to do something to promote the Sevier County community after the fire,” said Adrian Pearce, News Sentinel advertising promotions manager.

Dance’s staff designed and trademarked the idea. All proceeds from the $15 shirt above cost went to help after the fire.

“You never know what the response will be. It was the shopping season before Christmas and for the retailers to give up their profits ...,” he said. “We were really just a conduit; there were so many people working on this.”

Dance said the company got about as many online orders as retail sales, adding the ordered came from everywhere and not just the U.S.

“For us, this is our community,” Dance said. “It is just our way of giving back. It was the right thing to do.”

Dotson took the occasion to mention that an announcement will be made Friday, May 5, at Dolly Parton's press conference on Dollywood of plans for use of a portion of the My People fund.

More than $11 million has been raised of which between $5.5 million and $6 million is being used to give $1,000 per month for six months for as many as 900 Sevier County residents who lost their primary homes in the fires. The last of those checks will be distributed Thursday.

Related:

►What we know: Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge fires

►Photos: Fires wreak havoc on Gatlinburg

►Gatlinburg hotels, homes destroyed in fires

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