Washington Crab and Seafood Shack Owner Tony Tripp has pledged to donate 10 percent of sales from this week to the American Red Cross.

According to Tripp, he wanted the shack to do something as a business to help aid victims of last week’s tornadoes in Beaufort County.

“Monday I got to talking and thinking that there has been a great response with water and food and clothes, but there are a lot of people out there that need medication and other specific needs that can really only be gotten with money,” said Tripp. “So I basically said, ‘Ok, folks. We are going to donate 10 percent of our revenues this week to the Red Cross and that’s what we decided to do.’”

Tripp said that he talked to several business owners in the area and most seem to be donating food.

“That’s something that everybody needs too,” Tripp said. “Everybody is trying to do something, and I just felt like that money might be something that the Red Cross would be short on.”

According to Tripp, his reasoning behind donating money was that people might need funds for hotel accommodations and other needs that the basics would not cover. Tripp called the Red Cross to see what he could do to contribute.

“I called the Red Cross and asked them what they felt like they needed the most,” Tripp said. “They said, ‘Well, we’ve got a lot of bottled water being donated, we’ve got a lot of food being donated, we’ve got clothes being donated — we really need funds to help us with specific needs to individuals. That’s when we publicized that we were donating.”

Tripp said that he thinks that it is great that other businesses are donating to help out with the recovery.

“They went ahead and donated food and hot meals,” Tripp said. “That’s great. If I was asked to do that, I would, but I went ahead and did the 10 percent donation. I’m thinking that we are going to generate well over $1,000, which is a pretty good amount.”

There has been a good response, according to Tripp.

“People are coming in and talking about it,” Tripp said. “We actually put up a little jar up front also, collecting money from their change. That might add a couple more hundred to the total.”

Tripp said that Monday morning, after the shack closes out sales for the week, he will meet with the Red Cross and donate the revenue.