April 22, 2008
Kid Power!
I woke up this morning to an email from Ron Adams who teaches at the Broad Meadows Middle School in Quincy, MA. Ron has been a friend for several years. His gentle temperament is well suited to teaching…kids who pass through his classes are truly blessed.
Fortunately, Ron’s special nature is used not only in the formal classroom but also in his work advising the kids who participate in the school’s after-class club devoted to ending child labor throughout the world. (You can learn more about the history of the Quincy kids’ efforts at their website, http://www.mirrorimage.com/iqbal/index.html.) For more than ten years, many students going through Broad Meadows Middle School have taken part in this special effort and because of their involvement, many have found their own lives changed in different ways. The Kids’ Campaign has brought them to such august venues as the US Congress, the United Nations, even Harvard Business School has called upon their expertise and invited them to speak on behalf of this world-wide problem.
Ron’s request was a simple one-he needed funding to provide this year’s group with t-shirts for their end-of-year activities….as he wrote…
However, I have NOT been able to find funding for the end-of-the-year tee shirts for the Quincy Kids. In previous years, Ziv paid for the tee shirts as long as they were produced with justice. I’d love, truly love, to be able to order 60 tee shirts, made with justice by a union print shop on Bobo’s wife’s label "Edun-live". These tee shirts are made with justice from South African grower to sewer, guaranteed! That’s the only kind of tee shirt worthy of covering the big hearts of the small people at Broad Meadows Middle School. Is there any way you could help us with the purchase of these 60 tee shirts? The cost of the cheapest tee shirts, the made-in-China-under-who-knows-what-kind-of-working-conditions, are $ 6.50 each. For $9.00 each, I can get the Edun-live, made-without-hurting-anyone-tee-shirts. That’s a lot of money, but the symbolism is powerful…we can shop with a conscience, wear shirts with pride and use the shirts to make others aware of producing goods which are good for people, harmless to children and good for the environment.
Who could say no to this simple but oh-so-powerful request? I told Ron that I thought the Good People Fund could underwrite these shirts-in fact, it would be an honor for us to do so!
