T-Shirts for a Cause

This week, I spent time designing a t-shirt for staff to wear during our "Wear Pink" day at the end of the month. It went from a simple idea where I would use the Cricut to make shirts for the library staff to a huge staff-wide fundraiser with proceeds going to New Hampshire Breast Cancer Coalition.

As the idea expanded, it made me think of our "Portrait of a Graduate" competencies!

Clothing sales are a fantastic way to raise money and support a cause. What if your students followed my lead and came up with a design for a t-shirt related to your content area that could be used to raise money for a charity? How is this connected to the Portrait of a Graduate?

1. Communication & Collaboration: Students would need to work together to create the design and provide feedback to each other during the design process. They would also need to communicate with administration to organize a time and place for sales.

2. Critical Thinking, Creativity & Problem Solving: Students would need to create an original design, find the best option for printing, and come up with a plan for pricing to result in a large enough donation.

3. Self-Direction: Students would need to research charities to find one that is meaningful to them. They would then need to reach out to find out how to go about making a donation.

4. Engaged Citizen: Students would contribute to society via the donation to charity, which could be advertised on social media to bring more awareness to the charity.

As for a digital tool? Canva, of course! Canva has templates for t-shirts, which will actually show you what the design looks like on clothing. Just click the "Print T-Shirts" button to see a preview in different colors! You can even do front & back designs.

Canva does give you an option for ordering shirts, but if it were me (and...it was), I would do some research on other companies that print in bulk for lower prices. You can always download the file from Canva and use it with any other company. 🙂 If you're craftier than me, you could even bring the design into Cricut and press your own shirts!