Lake Orion, Michigan

To the ones who run toward it,

There is a particular kind of person who hears the alarm and moves toward it. Who signs a paper at eighteen, or twenty-two, promising years of a life to people they will never meet. Who works the night the rest of us sleep through, and comes home carrying what the rest of us are spared from ever knowing.

We are Todd and Meghan. We run Elutide from Lake Orion, Michigan, and this page exists because we could not, in good conscience, let people like you pass through our store as another order number.

What you give is not abstract to us. It is the firefighter who walked into a house on our street while everyone else stood on the lawn. It is the police officer who stepped between a stranger and the worst night of that stranger’s life, and the deputy on a two-lane road at three in the morning. It is the paramedic whose hands stayed steady when ours could not. It is the soldier, the sailor, the airman and the Marine who spent their birthdays somewhere hard so that ours could be ordinary. And it is the dispatcher, the calmest voice a frightened caller will ever hear.

We have thought a great deal about what a small family company can honestly offer in return for a debt that cannot be repaid. The truthful answer is: not enough. But we can offer what is ours to give, and we can offer it with sincerity rather than slogans. So on every order you place with us, we set aside twice what we set aside for anyone else, and we mark your account so that everyone on our team knows exactly who they are packing for.

Consider it a standing note of thanks, renewed with every box that leaves our hands.

With profound respect and gratitude,

Todd and Meghan

Elutide