Do you remember the elementary school boy from Florida who was bullied for wearing a DIY T-shirt with the University of Tennessee logo? His T-shirt design has raised nearly $1 million for STOMP Out Bullying charity.
It is a national nonprofit dedicated to changing the culture for all students and works to reduce and prevent bullying, cyber-bullying, and other digital abuse.
According to the university, it sold 112,715 shirts for $14.99 per shirt in the last three months.
During the school’s college colors day in August, the fourth-grader boy who wanted to show his support for the University of Tennessee volunteers hand drew the logo and attached it to an orange shirt.
“After lunch, he came back to my room, put his head [on] his desk and was crying. Some girls at the lunch table next to his [who didn’t even participate in college colors day] had made fun of his sign that he had attached to his shirt. He was DEVASTATED,” his teacher Laura Snyder wrote.
The story inspired the university to print t-shirts featuring the boy’s design as a gesture of appreciation.
“There are no words to express how grateful we are to the University of Tennessee for choosing STOMP Out Bullying as the nonprofit organization they wanted to partner with on the Volunteers T-shirt,” said Ross Ellis, CEO of STOMP Out Bullying.
“We have always been an organization dedicated to spreading kindness and preventing bullying and cyber-bullying, and this extremely generous donation helps us to continue to make bullying history.”
The university had also offered him a scholarship that will cover his tuition and fees at the school nine years from now.
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