By Ashley McMahon
Toledo Free Press Staff Writer
news@toledofreepress.com
Big dreams can lead to tangible realities. This mantra is proving true for Breena Holt, a 30-year-old mother of four who took a tragedy and turned it into a masterpiece.
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In 2012, Holt’s life changed forever when her 2-year-old son Ezekiel suffered his first seizure during a family trip to the Toledo Zoo. After months of seizures and an obvious deterioration in health, Holt and her husband Andrew learned that “Zekey” suffered from Batten disease.
“My typical 2-and-a-half-year-old son was slowly becoming uncreated by seizures,” Holt said.
The disease is inherited through genetic material from both parents, according to the Batten Disease Support and Research Association. It causes drastic changes to a healthy child, causing seizures, visual impairments, dementia and loss of motor skills.
“It was a devastating time in our lives,” Holt said.
To cope, her family, which also includes son Cyrus, 8, and daughters Eisley, 7, and Bexley, 3, moved from Columbus to Toledo to be close to family. The Holts moved in with Andrew’s parents, where Zekey spent the remainder of his life in a comfortable room with a gorgeous view.
“Zekey was given a bed next to a floor-to-ceiling window, so it was a beautiful area,” Holt said.
She said her son was in good spirits and kept smiling through the disease, adding, “It was such a beautiful thing to see during all the chaos because he just showed how much God was near him.”
While caring for Zekey, Holt took to blogging. She wanted to share her story with others and help community members dealing with struggles of their own. She received positive feedback from readers and eventually connected with a woman who inspired Holt to start an apparel company, Garment Collective.
“Since I was young, I was very picky about my clothes. I now see it in my girls, which cracks me up,” Holt said. “I was obsessed with fashion magazines. It was always in my blood. I took those career tests and I came out to be a fashion designer.”
The woman knew about Holt’s love for fashion and connected her with two missionary couples working in Nepal to free women from slavery and human trafficking. Part of that work is providing alternative employment to women in the region.
“It’s beautiful work they are doing over there and I was blown away,” Holt said. “I thought my dream was gone. I’ve always had this artistic thirst.”
Holt was amazed that an opportunity to pursue her designing dreams had sprung from Zekey’s story.
“It was Zekey’s story that connected me with the manufacturer out in Nepal,” Holt said. “I knew right away it was God. Here God’s taking this terrible thing and brings good out of it. That’s what he does. He’s out for redemption in our life.”
Holt connected with the missionaries in Nepal in 2013. Zekey died on March 23 of that year.
“To find that in a time of such sadness, to get that glimpse of hope during that time was so amazing. I knew that I could take it and run with it,” she said.
Right now, Holt has a Kickstarter fund that has raised nearly $24,000, surpassing her goal of $20,000. These funds support the creation of Holt’s “Redemption for All” T-shirts, which are ethically sourced and produced by the women in Nepal.
The theme of the shirts comes from Holt’s belief that everyone deserves redemption.
“We’re all meant to be redeemed. I believe that is what God wants for all of us. And specifically, I think about these women who are literally living out redemption. They had terrible lives before, but look what they’re doing now. I hear these stories and it’s just amazing,” she said.
Holt independently creates her designs before sending them over to the women and their team. Once the team in Nepal receives the designs, a third-generation pattern-maker creates the patterns. Next, the women begin creating the shirts with ethically sourced fabrics.
“They make sure wherever they source the fabrics, there wasn’t slavery there either,” Holt said.
The finished products are then sent back to Holt and she sells them on her website. In order to ensure the workers are paid fairly, Holt said she pays them before she receives anything.
“I get charged enough per shirt in order to pay the women well and for them to make a profit on their business,” Holt said. “I don’t even get the shirts until I pay them, and then they send the shirts over.”
Currently, Holt is one of 35 artisans who work with the missionaries in Nepal to create jobs for the women and keep them out of slavery and trafficking. The mission’s 10-year goal is to create between 5,000-10,000 jobs for women in Nepal.
Even though she hasn’t met the women, Holt said, “I have a heart for them because I know my sales are bringing them work.”
Holt will use the funds raised from the Kickstarter campaign, which ends Jan. 24, to produce the first line of Redemption for All T-shirts.
Holt hopes to eventually open a storefront in Toledo and create a full line of ethically produced women’s clothing, including skirts, boleros, blouses and casual T-shirts.
“I want customers to walk in the store seeing many options that you love and feel beautiful in, that you feel so good about purchasing because you know no one was treated badly,” Holt said. “You’re giving new life and hope to the women creating these designs. That is my dream. I’m just ecstatic for that day to come.”
One notable detail on the Redemption for All T-shirts is a tag dedicated to Zekey that reads “Ezekiel 11:19,” a reference to both Zekey’s birthday and the Bible passage, that states, “I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.”
This is a friendly reminder to supporters that you can’t tell the story of Garment Collective without talking about Holt’s late son.
“His life could bring so much joy to so many people,” Holt said. “I’m following my dream and helping these women out of trafficking. How could I not follow that? How could I not honor my son?”
For more information, visit garmentcollective.com.
