A North Huntingdon couple started a company that spreads joy by creating bespoke outdoor signs for events such as birthdays, family gatherings, high school graduation ceremonies, and individual students.
“We’re in the pleasure industry. Everything we do with our signs is fun, ”said Nick Benevento, who owns Benevento Yardobrations with his wife Nicole“ Nikki ”.
Last week, the Benevents put up a 4.5 meter long sign outside Norwin High School to congratulate the class of 2021. Nick hoped there would be another place for the seniors to stage graduation photos. The sign showed a doctoral hat, balloons and a Norwin Knight with a diploma.
“With everything they have been through, it’s important that the class have something like this in 2021,” said Nikki Benevento.
The school district paid the Beneventos $ 200 for the sign at the high school and another at the Stratigos Banquet Center in North Huntingdon, the site of the prom, said Jonathan Szish, spokesman for the school district.
Yardobrations is a companion business to their first commercial venture, Photobrations, which includes pop-up photo booths with mirrors and a camera to snap photos at weddings, balls, graduations, anniversaries, mitzvahs, and other gatherings. With so many weddings, corporate gatherings, balls, anniversaries, and mitzvahs either postponed or downsized in the past year, the photo booth business went broke.
The Yardobrations was a pandemic-born business that would not be affected by Covid-related restrictions. The Benevents started yardobrations last fall to help weather the pandemic, he said.
Nick Benevento is a printer at Laurel Printing Graphics in Duquesne and employs a designer to turn his ideas into reality. The signs are printed on a weatherproof plastic material and held together with pegs and solidified. Nikki does interior work for exhibitions at conventions, a deal that she said ended abruptly on March 13th last year – a date she pounds off without hesitation.
With the pandemic restrictions on gatherings eased, expect a busy season.
“We measure smiles by the yards,” said Nick Benevento.
Joe Napsha is a contributor to Tribune Review. You can contact Joe at 724-836-5252, jnapsha@triblive.com, or on Twitter.