We walked through the art/craft tents on Green Bay's Broadway this morning after coffee at Kavarna, one of our favorite places. We saw button jewelry, pencil sketches of Marilyn Monroe and James Dean, funnel cakes, coffee can lawn art, and other hometown miscellanea in tents scattered on either side of the street. We crossed from the Kavarna side of the street to the east side and stopped at a booth with inspirational messages ("I Believe Me") printed across T-shirts. The designs were original art and very nicely done.
A young lady manning the booth walked right up to us and explained that the shirts were made to spread the message that kids had to believe in themselves She finished her 60-second elevator speech, dropped a card in our shopping bag, and wished us a good day. That was an impressive young lady.
Later on I read the card and brought up the website (www.ibelieveme.org). The young lady was the oldest of three siblings who founded this company to counteract the negative message that kids receive everyday: "Have you ever been told you're not good enough, that you'll never be good enough? Have you been cut from a team, not gotten the part, or been made to feel inferior?"
Rather than give in to the critics, the principals of this kitchen-table company, made up of Callie (our young lady), her brother Leo, and her younger sister Molly, want kids to believe in individual gifts, personal worth, and inspirational dreams. For every T-shirt you, buy the trio with give another T-shirt to a child who would also benefit from promoting the "I Believe Me" message.
Working from a screen printing press in the basement of their grandmother's Allouez, WI, house, the trio know that they can't change the entire world, but are working to do what they can to spread a message of positivity in a very negative world one T-shirt at a time. They write, "We are hear to help, to let you know that you ARE good enough, and that you CAN do whatever you put your mind to."
Impressive indeed.
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