Why a Texas Teen Has Collected 200+ Animal Shelter Promotional T-shirts

By Joseph Myers

We often hear that everything is bigger in Texas, and 13-year-old Jayson Kimberly is helping to prove that the sentiment applies to the knack for being selfless, too. Hoping to draw attention to the issue of animal welfare, the adolescent is donning promotional T-shirts for different animal shelters throughout the school year, a move that should find Lone Star State locations apt to support his Leave It for the Pooch service project.

We love Jayson & Leave it for the Pooch's efforts #ForTheAnimals! Jayson is raising awareness for animal welfare by wearing a rescue t-shirt each day of the school year. Check out his Facebook page (@Leaveitforthepooch) & mail him a shirt if you'd like to get your group involved! pic.twitter.com/AT1gK1a2Sa

— Houston PetSet (@HoustonPetSet) August 16, 2019

One might presume that shelters rely on brochures and other printed materials to serve as their promo aids, but the teenager’s now three-year-old endeavor to support shelters is showing what we in the promo industry already know: that T-shirts also make for great ways to be advocates. The shirts will become a mainstay as Kimberly attends Montgomery Junior High School and displays how many establishments across the nation are working hard to promote the spaying and neutering of animals.

As of August 19, Kimberly has received 240 shirts, and news accounts of his work and Leave It for the Pooch’s Facebook page both indicate that he plans to keep collecting them. As we all know, a school year is a lengthy blessing in the promo world, so Kimberly will likely very much enjoy being quite selective when wondering how to boost the shelters’ causes. He even intends to craft quilts from some of the T-shirts, with one fortunate location to claim the proceeds that come through a raffle for the comforters.

Though that giveaway will not come until June, it could exist as a way for promo companies to align themselves with shelters not only in Texas, but everywhere else. The more that T-shirt producers and their business allies within the promo world respond to his call, the more that Kimberly, now on his ninth day of school, can give further credence to the idea that wearing T-shirts can help altruistic entities’ missions. Though the idea originated this summer, here’s hoping that shelters continue to give Kimberly their T-shirts in earnest. The eager child has high school in his immediate future, after all, so if he retains passion for this shelter project, he could have his entire attire secured for that educational journey come Christmas.