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Scarfables gives pets fashion flair while donating profits to charities

4 min read
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Dave Zuchowski/for the Observer-Reporter

Jerie Drupp packages one of her corn bag heat packs at the California Elementary School’s annual PTA spring vendor show

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Dave Zuchowski/for the Observer-Reporter

California Elementary first grader Taylor Pritchard, left, shows off the new bandana she bought from Jerie Drupp for her stuffed axolotl

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Dave Zuchowski/for the Observer-Reporter

Jerie Drupp selling her Scarfables and corn bag heat packs at California Elementary School’s annual PTA spring vendor show

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Dave Zuchowski/for the Observer-Reporter

Jerie Drupp displays one of her Scarfables at the California Elementary School’s annual PTA spring vendor show

Sometime during his terminal illness, Terry Drupp made his wife, Jerie, promise she’d get a dog after he passed so she wouldn’t get lonely.

Two months after he died in 2020, she kept her promise. She got a blue tick beagle named Gumby from the Washington County Humane Society. Five months later, she added to her household another furry friend, a corgi beagle mix named Alfie, from All Mutts Matter, a dog rescue organization in West Virginia.

“The two dogs are now best of friends,” Drupp said.

Wanting to give her new companions a dash of fashion flair, she sewed them each a bandana. Soon relatives and friends, then neighbors, wanted one for their own pets, and a new business named Scarfables was born in August 2022.

Drupp’s in-stock inventory currently runs over 1,400 bandanas, available in various sizes and colors. Themes are many and varied and include sports (Pirates, Penguins, Steelers and other NFL teams), illustrated animals and holidays beginning with Valentine’s Day and ending with Christmas.

Sizes run from small through extra-large and are sewn so that a collar can run through the bandana, allowing it to run either under the animal’s chin or on the back of its neck. The prices range from $5 for a small to $13 for an extra-large.

Drupp, a resident of West Brownsville, also sells her line wholesale for those who buy $300 or more of her merchandise with a $2 discount per bandana. “Low wholesale prices allow the buyer to nearly double their retail price so they can make a profit for their business,” Drupp said.

Drupp’s business model has Scarfables selling its product solely via Facebook and email. According to Drupp, she donates more money to cat and dog shelters and rescues than Scarfables makes.

To date, Scarfables bandanas have been sold in Oregon, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Rhode Island and Texas. Locally, the bandanas are available at Route 40 Aggregate and Feed Store in Centerville (Brownsville), Nemacolin Wooflands in Farmington and Pampered Four Paws in Morgantown.

Currently, Drupp is working with the California School District and its PTA, grades K-6, by donating 40 percent to the PTA. Sixty percent goes into a scholarship fund for two $500 scholarships that will be awarded to a male and female California graduating senior each May Day in honor of Terry Drupp, who taught middle/elementary physical education at California for 38 years. The first scholarships will be awarded in May 2024.

To offer the scholarships to as many students as possible, the Drupp family has decided that only students majoring in health and physical education (after Terry Drupp), recreation (after Jerie Drupp’s career), respiratory therapy (after son, Ryan’s profession) and arts and music (after daughter, Dara’s college major) will be eligible to apply. The applications will be available in March of each year.

“We want them to be completed anonymously because the family knows so many people from the district, and we’d like them to be awarded on the basis of ability and accomplishments and not by nepotism,” Drupp said.

In addition to the bandanas, Drupp sells corn bag heat packs in small through extra-large squares for the back and tubular shapes for the neck and shoulders. Prices range from $10 for individual corn bag heat packs, $13 for individual neck/shoulder ones, $15 to $25 for large and extra large square ones and $25 for combination packs of both kinds.

A variety of prints in cotton are offered in gallon-sized zipper bags with printed directions on how to heat the bag in the microwave or freeze it for a cold pack.

Besides California, other schools or groups in the area who might be interested in having Scarfables offer a 40 percent award for sales through PTA or local sports groups, bands, cheerleaders, boosters, etc., can contact Jerie Drupp at Myscarfables@gmail.com.

“Our family’s mission is to assist as many students as possible with fundraising efforts and, at the same time, keep the memory of a dedicated health and physical education teacher alive through our scholarships,” Drupp said.

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