Clothes for a cause  
Learners raise money through fashion for Our Place

by Amy Dove, Goldstream News Gazette

These T-Shirts have a purpose far beyond covering skin.

Royal Roads University students Christy Smith and Brent Patton model their socially-minded T-shirts at Colwood city hall last week. All proceeds go to Our Place, a society that helps the homeless. Amy Dove/News staff

Bold colours and a simple message is raising money for Our Place, a non-profit society providing services for the homeless. The brains behind the garb are bachelor of commerce students from Royal Roads University who turned $5 into more than $2,000 in one month.

As part of the ninth annual ACE RRU Venture Challenge the five-member team was given $5 to start a campaign with all proceeds donated to charity. Championed by Christy Smith and Brent Patton, the group wanted to do something local.

Inspired by the Gap Red campaign which is raising money for African countries through clothing, the team decided to incorporate the word “our” into their designs, Smith explained.

The result was a colourful collection of shirts featuring one of four words: courage, honour, amour and armour. Future orders will feature: neighbour, glamour, rumour and flavour.

“There is definitely something to be said for buying something with added social value,” Smith said.

Unlike a lot of charitable campaigns people know exactly where the money is going too, Patton added.

The shirts were launched at a local rotary club in February and within 20 minutes they sold enough to break even on the costs of printing them, Patton said. The school project finished last month, however, Smith and Patton decided to keep promoting the shirts.

There are so many possibilities in where the campaign could go, Smith said, noting it would be great to get people accessing Our Places services involved in the promotion and sales.

For their efforts, the five students involved in the original campaign won the social entrepreneurship award from RRU, as well as the most news worthy venture. Local municipalities got involved too, with Colwood council and staff raising $395 in sales.

The shirts are currently available at downtown Victoria clothing stores HtO, 1314 Broad St. and Decade, 1407 Government St. for $25.

For those interested in supporting the cause without a real need for the shirt a $20 donation will see one shirt donated to a patron of Our Place.

Check out the campaign’s Facebook group called OUR Campaign or e-mail theourcampaign@gmail.com for more information.

This article, reprinted here with permission, originally appeared in the Goldstream News Gazette on April 02, 2008.