4theKids selling T-shirts, raising funds for Children's Hospital | Events

On Thursday, Dec. 6,  Highland Place Shopping Center will hold a Christmas Open House and the merchants have invited 4theKids organization to be a part of the event to sell T-shirts to raise money for Our Lady of the Lake (OLOL) Children's Hospital.

4theKids is a teen organized fund-raising campaign started by high school students Elizabeth Sherman of St. Joseph’s Academy and Sydney Saia of University Lab School. The two girls are next-door neighbors and life-long friends who, since age 7 or 8, have done ongoing projects such as entertainment “dinner shows” to raise money for children.

When their church youth leader, Steven Brooksher, became director at Lady of the Lake Foundation, he asked the girls to help with a phone-a-thon and later invited the two girls and their parents to tour the hospital.

From the moment the girls heard the stories of some of the patients and actually met them in person, they immediately felt a strong desire to help improve and expand the facilities for the children. In the summer, they created the “4theKids” campaign. Their logo was made by meeting real patients and having them place their painted hand-prints and names onto a heart shaped poster.  

By October, the girls had the 4theKids’ logo transferred onto T-shirts, created a web site, opened a bank account and business name, produced a short video, and enlisted the help of other high school friends, all of which has enabled them to sell almost 200 T-shirts to date.

All proceeds from the shirts go to OLOL.   4theKids is now a multi-school teen involved campaign. They are continuing to sell T-shirts at $20 each and also are designing their “Coeur-sage” bracelet sales. “Coeur” (which means “heart” in French) “sage” bracelets will be offered at high school prom and formal dances, as well as on-line, as an alternative or as an addition to the usual corsage bouquets given by high school couples. 

You can view the 4theKids two minute video and download a T-shirt order form at http://www.4the-kids.org/.

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