The Power of a T-Shirt

Really enjoyed this story about a young boy’s t-shirt idea that went viral for all the right reasons.

Never underestimate the power of a t-shirt. That’s what an elementary school student in Altamonte, Florida learned when he came up with an idea for his school’s “College Colors” day. Here’s what happened:

Many schools have the tradition of encouraging young students to don collegiate wear on specified days in order to promote the concept of attending college when they are older (or just for fun).  It’s a great idea. However some kids don’t own any college spirit wear. Well that didn’t stop the young man in this story. Determined to represent his favorite team, the University of Tennessee Volunteers, he created his own design on a piece of paper and proudly attached it to a t-shirt. His teacher was very impressed with his drive to participate and promote his love for the Vols. Unfortunately, many of his peers thought otherwise and by lunchtime the boy was in tears from all the bullying about his homemade design and shirt. The teacher, Laura Snyder, decided turn things around by posting about the incident on social media. She wanted to purchase the boy a UT shirt of his own and also reached out to other Vols fans to make the gift more special. The response was overwhelming, with her post going viral, and Vols fans reaching out in support. And then the University of Tennessee’s campus university shop (@UTVolShop ) sent out a huge care package with UT spirit wear to the boy and the class. In addition, UT decided to turn the boy’s design into a real shirt, with proceeds going to an anti-bullying campaign. Supposedly orders for the shirt caused the store’s website to crash. I think the kid may have a future in the t-shirt industry. Thankful for all the good folks out there that reached out to lift this boy up and not at all surprised that a t-shirt was involved.

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