The group of entrepreneurship students from Vanier Collegiate have made a large donation to the Moose Jaw & District Food Bank, after selling custom apparel products for just one week this fall.
The group of 28 students total created an apparel line called Lonesome Road Co. as their business venture this year, which featured a selection of hoodies, sweatshirts and t-shirts designed by the class and printed through a partnership with local business The Shop.
Lonesome Road Co. sold over 340 clothing items to students and families at Vanier during a limited one-week window, more than doubling their initial goal of selling 150 items. The students then chose to donate all profits from their venture to the local food bank.
The cheque presented to food bank development manager Jason Moore totalled $4,200, and presented by Grace Waldenberger, Trinity Andries, Jewellyn McDonald and Nick Daley on behalf of the rest of the company.
“We decided that since [the food bank] weren’t able to get as many donations this year or the money they usually collect from the Halloween food drive, that they would be a good place for us to give to,” said Andries.
Vanier has been participating in the Entrepreneurship 30 course for a number of years, overseen by teacher Christa Lapointe, although things were a little different this year because of the pandemic.
With COVID-19 and the unique circumstances it has caused, the class was somewhat limited in terms of production and distribution opportunities. Lonesome Road Co. only sold their apparel for a week, unlike past entrepreneurship companies who produced and marketed their products for months.
“It was kind of a fast pace, with the pressure, but it was good because we learned so much in such a short amount of time,” said McDonald.
Waldenberger said that the biggest takeaway from this year’s business venture was perfecting the skill of teamwork, with such a large group of students working together to come up with an idea and implement it.
But the students who participated still feel like it was a rousing success, and there was more interest in Lonesome Road Co. products than they anticipated — with several businesses stepping up to partner with the class and interest in purchasing items from all over the community.
“It was very different, but also very exciting to learn this new stuff,” said Waldenberger. “With COVID, we weren’t sure if we were going to be able to do anything, so it was very exciting when we found out we could.”
