Wyandotte Students Design Shirt for Injured Teen

Students in the marketing program at wanted to do something to help classmate Jacob Marion, who was critically injured after being struck by a train on Tuesday.

The marketing students, who have experience designing clothes and selling the merchandise in their school store, decided to put those talents to good use.

Within a matter of hours on Thursday, the students came up with the idea of creating a shirt for Jacob, then designed it and got a spec to the printing company they use.

They placed an initial order for 200 shirts on Friday morning and then started advertising the shirts within the school. By the end of lunch, 234 shirts had been sold, causing the students to put in another order.

"I had a line of kids waiting at my door to get the shirts," marketing teacher Elissa Cumiskey said. "It was great. I had a chance to explain to the kids the importance of community service."

The orders were coming in so quickly, Cumiskey said, she had to assign one student to do nothing but process T-shirt orders on Friday.

"She was getting really energetic watching everyone coming down to buy a shirt, knowing that the money was going to a good cause and to help a fellow student," Cumiskey said. "It’s already been a great exercise and we've only been selling them for two days."

The orders flooded in over the weekend after word of the shirts spread on Facebook and . Some workplaces, including , have placed large orders and are allowing their employees to wear the shirts to work to show their solidarity.

Accents Customer Printwear of Lincoln Park, which is printing the shirts, also has gotten on board with the fundraiser and has agreed to donate half of the total shirts.

Cumiskey said she isn't sure when she'll know what the total shirt sales are, however, as she has no plans to stop selling the shirts anytime soon.

"We’ll take orders until everyone who wants a shirt has one," she said.

Cumiskey took some shirts down to Children's Hospital of Michigan in Detroit on Saturday, where Jacob is listed in critical condition, and gave them to his family.

"They were just ecstatic ... and thankful for what everyone is doing," she said. "They were just overwhelmed at how wonderful the community has been. They were shocked, surprised, humbled and happy we are doing this for them."

The light blue shirts come in all sizes, from youth to adult. The next batch of shirts is expected to be in on Wednesday. To place an order, visit The Trading Post inside Roosevelt during school hours or contact Cumiskey at cumiske@wy.k12.mi.us or 734-759-5100.

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