“Unless someone like you cares a whole, awful lot, things aren’t going to get better. They’re NOT!” Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

From a young age, Dr. Seuss taught many of us that it takes an extraordinary effort to affect change for the better. In the book, children are encouraged to deeply care because if they will not, things will not get better. This is a profound lesson that Dr. Seuss teaches us.

What does it mean to care a whole, awful lot about something? If I care this much, is my effort going to affect change for good? Can I really make a difference?

In Fall of 2009, the Youth Pastors at Salem Alliance Church in Salem, Oregon challenged the high school and middle school students to come up with a way to help solve an issue in the Salem-Keizer area. The idea was to find a way to be Jesus with skin to the area – that this would both teach students how to be loved and how to love others through the love of Jesus. After all of the ideas came in, the youth groups would then vote on the best idea- the idea that they would actually help out with.

West Salem High School senior Whitney Ferrin, an attendee of the high school group at Salem Alliance decided to take this challenge to heart. Whitney researched the Salem-Keizer area to find a problem that was waiting desperately for a solution.

Her findings? Disheartening. Whitney learned that there were 900 homeless students in the Salem-Keizer School District during the 2008-2009 school year. The magnitude of this statistic is astonishing.

Whitney teamed up with Paula Hoffart, one of the Youth Pastors at Salem Alliance, to figure out how to help these students. The idea that they came up with is to sell t-shirts.

“We wanted to sell a t-shirt that we would actually want to wear,” says Ferrin, “When the Give A Shirt idea came up, we both said, ‘I’d wear that!’”

An edgy name gets people talking. Try wearing one of their shirts around town. People interact with you in ways you would never expect.

After the youth groups voted for Whitney’s idea, the production of shirts began. The rest is history. In the past 3 months, Give A Shirt has sold over 1,000 shirts at schools, festival booths, and on www.igiveashirt.org.

From the start, Whitney wanted to help the students get clothing. She found that students were harassed and made fun of at school for clothing and hygiene issues.

Homeless students have so many factors distracting from their education. Getting to school can sometimes be last priority for these students because of life’s other issues.

“If I was made fun of at school for reasons that were beyond my control, I wouldn’t want to go either,” says Whitney, “We want to help these students be able to rise out of the situation they are in.”

Since education is distracted for the homeless students, Whitney decided she wanted to try to eliminate as many of those elements as possible.

Give A Shirt partners with a contact at the Salem-Keizer School District in order to fill needs that other social programs cannot fill adequately, allowing the students to get back in the classroom and continue their education.

Once each quarter, the homeless students are invited to a party where they can get free medical attention, hang out, play Wii, eat lunch, and sign up for field trips to go shopping for new clothes that they will enjoy wearing.

When a middle-school homeless student was told that she would get to go shopping for new clothes, her face lit up. She was amazed that somebody would want to help her. Later in the day, at lunchtime, another girl mentioned that she hadn’t eaten in two days.

In Matthew 25: 34-36, while sitting on the Mount of Olives, Christ says:

“Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’”

Whitney says that the proceeds of t-shirt sales help Give A Shirt accomplish their mission statement: “Give Hope, Restore Dignity.”

“Succeeding is getting the students clothes,” says Whitney, “We have already succeeded, but we must continue to succeed. It’s a big deal. Kids need to be able to see people who care about them.”

Some people have dreamt of Give A Shirt expanding and franchising to other areas with similar needs. When asked about this, Whitney smiled.

“That would be awesome and completely affirming of what we are doing here in Salem,” acknowledged Whitney, “But we need to fill areas of great need in each community. That might not be homelessness somewhere else.”

Caring a “whole, awful lot” is hard to do in a culture that constantly blurs the lines between needs and wants. The homeless students in Salem are struggling to even satisfy their basic needs.

Give A Shirt has a wise founder. She understands what Christ was talking about in Matthew 25 about serving those who have needs. She heard the message that Dr. Seuss teaches in The Lorax. She is leading a large group of people to affect change for a group of homeless students in great need.

Give A Shirt is helping students in the Salem-Keizer School District, and the organization’s influence is growing rapidly in Salem, Oregon.

There remains a question that needs to be answered. What are the great needs that need to be filled in your area? Will you Give A Shirt?