Tech T-shirt support victims
Posted on April 26, 2007
Throughout the week, students have been traversing the Quad wearing Virginia Tech apparel and sporting orange and maroon ribbons.
Some students have chosen to show their support in an even bigger way. The owners of the Web site JMaddy.com designed a $10 commemorative T-shirt, the proceeds of which will be used to buy a memorial bench on Virginia Tech grounds.
Jonathan Rezadoost, co-owner of the JMaddy site, said he came up with the idea for the T-shirts after he found out that he knew one of the VT victims.
“When I found out she died I started trying to come up with ways to raise money,” he said.
His accomplice, freshman Evan Witt, designed the original logo, and the two had the idea of selling it as a T-shirt to raise money for the Va. Tech Memorial Fund.
The original plan was to sell around 200 T-shirts which would generate enough profit to purchase a bench for Virginia Tech with the names of all the victims engraved on a plaque, Rezadoost said. Any extra money would be given to the memorial fund.
However, this was not the case. “We made a Facebook event and all of a sudden over a thousand orders came in,” he said. “We were overwhelmed.”
The site has received orders not just from JMU, but also from places as far away as Texas, California and Florida.
Many of the orders have been accompanied by notes thanking them for their hard work and support of the students and families of Va. Tech, Rezadoost said.
“It’s good to see all the positive responses,” he said.
Witt agreed.
“I didn’t realize [the amount of work this would require], but it’s all for a good cause,” he said.
In addition to the amount of time required to have T-shirts printed, collect money and ship all of the shirts, there have been some issues with copyright infringement. The students were told that their original design, which contained the Virginia Tech logo, could not be used without a signed letter from Va. Tech authorizing the use of the logo, which they were unable to obtain.
After contacting various authorities at Tech on the question of the logo and failing to receive authorization, the two were forced to come up with a new shirt design, which is the one currently being marketed. As the first 300 orders were printed before the switch, they will include the original design.
“We’re trying to do a nice thing, and we’re running into all these problems with copyrighting,” Witt said, adding that he still feels that it’s worth it because of the great response they’ve been getting. Already, JMaddy will be generating enough profit to buy two benches, one at Va. Tech and one at JMU, with enough left over to make a donation to the memorial fund.
“Hokie Spirit has always been a very important part of our school,” Va. Tech freshman Colleen Ackerman said. “Almost any time I go out with a group of students at least one or two if not more of us will be wearing some sort of Va. Tech apparel; it really means a lot to us to see orange and maroon everywhere.”
Sophomore Andrew Erdely agrees: “The fact that some of our students are willing to take time during finals to honor the victims at Va. Tech shows us that people here really do care and understand what is truly important in life.”