"It's a mind thing": Minnesotans brave through late-summer blaze
MINNEAPOLIS -- Plenty of people in the Twin Cities tried their best to embrace the heat Wednesday. In Midtown Minneapolis, 75 vendors and even more customers bared the brunt of the blaze during the Black Entrepreneurs State Fair.
"It's all a mind thing," said vendor Shanee O'Neal. "I mean, it's a heat thing, but it's a mind thing too."
Other vendors, like Sheldon Grady, saw an opportunity. Grady's "Eleven 86" water stand saw a boom with the hot temperatures.
"(The customers are) looking to me, and I call out to them," he said. "I say 'Hey, I've got ice cold water for you here. It keeps you hydrated, it makes you cool -- and it keeps you cool."
A positive attitude only goes so far, however, and the event's founder knew she needed to do something tangible to provide relief.
"We're finding new ways to stay cool and support each other," said Destinee Shelby, the event's founder. "We just go around and we ask how people are doing. Yesterday we had ice-cold rags that we got from a vendor called LED's Cleaning. She had cleaning rags and she dumped them in ice water – we were passing them out to people to stay cool. Today I'm passing out electrolyte packs."
The Black Entrepreneur State Fair continues through the weekend, where cooler temperatures will prevail.
"We know in Minnesota we deal with the four seasons," Shelby said. "We're out doing normal stuff when it's negative and below outside, so these 100-degree days, we're also being innovative and figuring it out. People are still showing up, so we have to show up too."
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