Three McMaster University business students - including Orillia native and Orillia Secondary School graduate Anna Di Bacco - are using what they’ve learned at school to build a business and to help front-line health-care workers.
Di Bacco’s classmate Cece Ohayon, who is from Hamilton, had her internship cancelled due to the global pandemic. That’s when the two students started brainstorming about a way to keep building experience in the business world during the hiatus from school and internship work.
They wanted to do something that could have an impact during the pandemic.
“Cece had the idea and wanted to do clothes, so we took the idea and went with it, creating a clothing brand with the slogan being 'This Brxnd Saves Lives'.”
Soon after, another classmate - Mark Nesbitt from Barrie - jumped on board. The business students got to work developing their own clothing brand that would support front-line workers fighting the spread of COVID-19.
“Everyone is staying home and online shopping is a daily habit, so we wanted to take something that people are already doing and incorporate giving back and make that a daily habit as well,” Di Bacco explained.
The McMaster students designed T-shirts, sweatshirts, and hoodies that are all manufactured in Canada and available for sale on their website.
Di Bacco said 50% of the proceeds will go to the Unity Health Network in Toronto where Nesbitt has a family connection. The other 50% of the proceeds will be reinvested back into their business.
“We just want to see the business grow, but we won’t be taking any proceeds for ourselves,” Di Bacco assured.
Di Bacco says the main reason they started this project was to give people a platform to do their part to help front-line workers.
“Everyone who is staying home is already saving lives and helping fight COVID-19 that way. But for the people who want to do more, they can can buy a sweater off of our brand or buy a T-shirt and contribute to front line workers,” she said.
This Brxnd Saves Lives clothing line launched a few days ago, and has already raised almost $3,000 in sales.
Di Bacco says that even though in the grand scheme of things, buying a $50 hoodie on their site might not seem like a big help to health-care workers, everything adds up and contributes to the fight against COVID-19.
“Giving back doesn’t need to be a really big thing or a couple hundred dollars. Giving back is just as important when it’s at small levels,” she said.
