Senior Brady Farrah created a t-shirt fundraiser through Allen Community Outreach (ACO) which provides human services and income support to those in need in Allen and local communities. His fundraiser website launched Oct. 20.

“All profits made from these shirts will be donated to Allen Community Outreach to support them,” Brady said. “Allen Community Outreach helps families in Allen and surrounding communities who are currently facing financial hardship.”

In the planning stage, Brady worked with Rhonda Ptak at ACO to create his fundraiser.

“Brady contacted ACO with a project of creating a t-shirt with proceeds benefiting ACO,” ACO chief community development officer Rhonda Ptak said. “We approved his final artwork and provided our logo for his use.”

Brady organized this fundraiser with the help of his mother, who has previous experience making t-shirts and other clothes.

“I wanted to create a project that would help others, while also incorporating my passion for business and design,” Brady said. “My mother already had experience in designing t-shirts and other clothes like hoodies and hats, so the idea of a t-shirt fundraiser seemed like a perfect fit for what we wanted to accomplish.”

Brady manufactures the t-shirts himself using a direct-to-garment printer, which prints the ink directly onto the shirt. The shirts are then sold and shipped out.

“Brady has watched me for years work with garment printing and has had some hands-on experience doing his own shirts in the past, so his biggest learning curve was figuring out how to build and run the fundraiser,” Brady’s mother Susan Farrah said.

Brady plans on  selling the shirts until the end into the start of next year, depending on the success of the fundraiser.

“He is continuing to work on it,” Farrah said. “Now he is working on finding ways to get the word out. Not easy to do in a pandemic, but he keeps trying.”