After making more than a million shirts in nearly 30 years in business, Gilroyans Norm, 61, and Gloria, 56, Mac Vicar are ready to retire and pass on their business to their daughter.
Gloria has stage 4 bone cancer, and, at the urging of her daughter and doctors, finally agreed the stress of running California Silk Screening on Welburn Street could take too great a toll.
“This last bout has been tough,” she said. “And I figured it was time to call it quits and start taking care my of me. Everybody is telling me I need to stop working, but I can’t because I need my insurance.”
Michele Pierson, their daughter, is organizing a fundraiser to help with medical expenses, including the $1,500 per month insurance payments her mom faces.
“She’s been a good teacher and an inspiration for sure,” Pierson said. “She really was stressed out and was crying and said she didn’t know what she was going to do. I was like ‘mom, don’t worry. I got this one.’ ”
The Mac Vicars are known throughout the community for their charitable donations and fundraising efforts, which includes donating to the Garlic Festival, Relay for Life, youth sports teams and other local organizations.
“When you help someone else, they always help you,” Gloria said. “It always comes back. I truly believe in karma.”
The couple has been in their current location at 275 Welburn St. for 22 years. Previously located on Monterey Street, they would have celebrated their 30th year in October.
Closing at the end of January was a decision that wasn’t easy to make; they tried to put it off as long as possible.
“We are married to this business,” Norm said. “What’s really difficult is to take 30 years of work and try to shut it down. It is probably the most difficult thing we have had to do.”
Michelle plans to move the business to 8505 Church St. in the DeBell Center because of the increase in rent at the current center that is dominated by mostly auto mechanics. She will keep the same phone number but will change the name to Calsilk Screen Printing.
But Michelle will have to start out from scratch with only manual equipment, since her parents have been forced to sell the more expensive, automated machines to pay for medical costs.
“I told her if she wanted to do it, she would have to start from the bottom like we did,” Gloria said. “But she knows this business inside and out. She really stepped up to fill in when I was diagnosed.”
Gloria said she will never forget the day in 2002 when she found out she had cancer. It was exactly one year after the 9/11 attacks.
She has had two surgeries to remove her brain tumors, but is now battling kidney cancer and undergoing an aggressive form of chemotherapy that leaves her feeling tired and drained. She has tried myriad experimental drugs looking for a cure; taking 28 pills a day to try to reduce the tumors.
“They are hoping the tumors get smaller, and then they can do micro-surgery instead of removing the kidney,” Gloria said. “But it is terminal, they just try to keep it from growing. So far, so good.”
That hasn’t stopped her from remaining positive and trying to help others who are in the same situation.
“If you got something, you got to deal with it,” she said. “That is my attitude. If you can’t deal with it you are not going to do well. I tell people they have cancer, but it doesn’t have you.”
She said she has known about a dozen people who have died from cancer.
“You can never have a good attitude about cancer, but you have to deal with it anyway. Sitting around moping is not going to make it better,” Gloria said. “I have a lot of wonderful friends and have a lot of support around me.”
After the 9/11 attacks, the Mac Vicars shut down their business for 11 days to make shirts to raise money for the victims.
“I wanted to be over there to help, and the next best thing was to send $1,000 to the relief fund,” Gloria said. “My girlfriend suggested using the money to make T-Shirts and raise money. It was well worth it. It made me feel better knowing I did something to help.”
They were honored with the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce Good Egg award after raising $24,885 for relief efforts.
And when Morgan Hill teen Sierra LaMar went missing in March 2012 last year, the Mac Vicars stepped up and donated 1,000 shirts to the cause.
Gloria said she enjoys attending events such as the Little League opening day ceremonies and the Gilroy Garlic Festival and seeing their shirts being worn.
“We go to Las Vegas, we go to Florida or wherever and we see our Garlic Festival shirts, and I think ‘hey, I touched that shirt,’” Gloria said.
The Garlic Festival orders many of the Mac Vicar’s T-Shirts for committees and volunteers from California Silk Screening.
“We’ve had a very long relationship with them from a business aspect,” said Joann Kessler, the assistant executive director of the Gilroy Garlic Festival Association. “When you do business with them, you become friends. They have been very active in the community.”
After Gloria retires, she said in addition to spending more time with the grandkids, she plans to continue volunteering with the American Cancer Society and with Relay for Life.
“I am going to do as much as possible to find a cure for cancer because I don’t plan on leaving any time soon,” she said.
Norm, a Vietnam War veteran, has created much of the artwork himself for the shirts people have ordered. And they still have many of the old designs lying around, making it easy to pull artwork if someone needs to reuse it. They are trying to get rid of many of the designs and offered to give them to anyone who wants them.
“I just want to thank our community for supporting us all these years,” Gloria said. “Without them, we wouldn’t have been here this long. Gilroy is awesome. They support each other.”
Help raise money for Gloria Mac Vicar’s medical expenses during a Casino Night fundraiser at 6 p.m. March 9 at Old City Hall in Gilroy. Cost is $35 and includes a drink ticket, appetizers and playing chips. There will be a raffle and a silent auction. Details: Michele Pierson at (408) 688-4029 or
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