Be A Number, and donate a t-shirt

We learned about a great new social business that is based upon the concept of TOMS Shoes. Every time you buy a t-shirt from Be A Number, they donate a shirt to a child in need.

21 year-old college student Kevin Hershock started Be A Number after deciding what he wanted to do with his life. Hershock decided we wanted to do more than just help himself. Be a Number is based right down the road from your humble blogger here in Michigan.

From the Battle Creek Enquirer, writer Sarah Lambert describes the business and tells us about their first mass t-shirt giving coming up this weekend.

That night, Hershock designed a T-shirt with a simple logo on the front and back. He decided that each shirt would have an order number on it, and that a second shirt with a corresponding number would go to an impoverished child somewhere in the world.

Hershock's company was inspired by TOMS Shoes, a company that pledges that for every pair of shoes a customer buys, a child in need gets a pair.

Be A Number's name comes from a quote from Mahatma Gandhi: "You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

People try to avoid being just a number, Hershock said. They try to stand out. But in this case, being a number is just enough to spark a change in the world.

In the six months since he scribbled down the logo designs, Hershock already has sold 500 shirts at $20 a piece, he said.

The first batch of matching shirts, with the order numbers one to 250, will go to needy children this weekend, Hershock said. Hershock's first drop-off will be Saturday. He and his friend Elizabeth Bonner are driving the shirts to Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

Forty-nine percent of people living in Pine Ridge were below the poverty level in 2000 and the median household income there in 1999 was $20,170, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics. The median household income in the United States in that period was $50,046.

TOMS gives away shoes in New Orleans

The company TOMS not only sells comfortable shoes, they also give them away. Last week, TOMS gave away thousands of pairs to children in New Orleans.

From this story that we found in the New Orleans Times Picayune, writer Susan Langenhennig tells us more about the unique company.

Two years ago, Blake Mycoskie came to New Orleans to sell some shoes. He came back last week to give some away.

You might not know his name, but you've probably seen his face. Mycoskie is the founder of TOMS, Shoes for Tomorrow, a company with an unusual business model: For every pair of shoes it sells, it gives away a pair to a child (or in some cases, adult) in need.

Mycoskie is the first to admit his mission is as compelling as his shoes -- a comfortable canvas slip-on modeled after the traditional Argentine alpargatas. His story is a good one: young, idealistic guy out to prove philanthropy can be fashionable and profitable. His business card lists his title as "chief shoe giver."
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On Thursday, he arrived at Langston Hughes Elementary School in Gentilly with an entourage of 20 volunteers from around the country and one from Canada. A total of 33 volunteers paid their own travel expenses just to be part of the New Orleans TOMS "shoe drop."

In three days, the company gave away 2,000 pairs of shoes to students at Langston Hughes, Lafayette Academy, ARISE Elementary, Akili Academy and Martin Behrman Elementary schools. TOMS staff contacted local social workers and the KidSmart organization to identify schools with serious needs. ABC's "Good Morning America" was here to capture it all on camera.
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Though he enjoyed joking around with the local kids on Thursday, Mycoskie remains committed to fighting poverty abroad, particularly in Ethiopia, where one of the company's factories is located.

"There's an illness there that people get that creates leg and foot swelling, and it's really awful and completely preventable," he said. "A doctor we're working with thinks we can eradicate this disease in 20 years."

The illness affects 15 percent of the population of southern Ethiopia. "I don't know who I'm going to marry or if I'll ever have kids," Mycoskie said. "But I do know that every year for the next 20 years, I'm going to Ethiopia."