When he went to work for Me To We Responsible Style this summer, 17-year-old Kyle Crawford of Mississauga knew what he wanted to pitch to his new employer: sustainable school spirit.
Crawford is a student at Cawthra Park Secondary School who organized a “Responsible Shopper” event last fall where members of a school club called LEAP (Leaders Empowering All People) tried to show their fellow students that they can make a difference with the consumer decisions they make.
As part of that program Crawford, who attended Ashgrove Public School, then Hillside and Allan A. Martin (in the business and tech program) invited a representative of Me To We Style to attend and talk about eco-friendly clothing before Christmas.
You may not have heard of Me To We but you have probably heard of the group from which it sprang, Free The Children, the charity started by Toronto teen Craig Kielburger and his brother Marc to bring the issue of child sweatshop labour to the fore.
In the course of the Responsible Shopper program, John Mullally, marketing director of Me To We, asked Kyle is he would like to work with the group this summer.
On the last day of his employment this summer, the Cawthra Park drama student said, “it has just been incredible being exposed to this cutting-edge business model. Not a lot of youth get exposed to that.”
Me To We markets clothing made of bamboo from Turkey, which can be renewed in just a few years, and organic cotton. Manufacturing is done locally in the GTA.
One of the most popular T-Shirts sports the motto “Be The Change,” referring to the famous quote from Gandhi that, “We Can Be The Change We Wish To See In The World.”
We To Me is the commercial application of Free The Children, allowing people to buy ethically manufactured, quality goods made from sustainable sources.
“We want to Be The Change in business,” says Crawford, a member of the Team Ontario baseball team who is hoping to combine a political science major and an Ivy League education after he graduates from Cawthra this year. He showed off his stuff this summer against the Ivy Leaguers in something called the Honour Roll Baseball Camp in Virginia.
The beauty of We To Me is that half of the profit from the clothing sales goes to support the work of Free The Children to end the misery of children who work in Third World sweatshops.
The T-shirts, available at www.metowestyle.com, cost $24.99. “I think people will pay a premium because you are not just buying a shirt, you are buying sustainability and the idea that we, as consumers, can vote with our wallets,” says Kyle.
This fall, as a result of the idea he took to Me To We, an information package has been developed for high schools. When schools are hosting their spirit days, or holding special events where they give away or sell shirts and hoodies, they will have the option of putting some of their newly-learned principles about social justice into action.
“Now they can have their school spirit developed in a way that is responsible,” says Crawford.