Due to lack of interest, the Class of 2027 T-Shirt Fundraiser was canceled Feb. 16 with refunds being given out within 7 business days.

“Interest was low from the beginning,” freshman class sponsor Shea Moyer said. “The class officers shared – after I’d gotten their approval and approved the artwork with the company – that classmates didn’t like the design on the shirts. It was too late to request changes at that point. The online store was already open, and I’d sold enough shirts that we couldn’t change things.”

Class of 2027 Prom was supposed to be funded by T-shirt sales, but due to its cancellation funding for it has to be from somewhere else.

“We’ve brainstormed some ideas but haven’t finalized anything,” Moyer said. “It’s tough, because freshmen classes come in with a zero balance, so it limits what we can do. We’re reliant on donations, or in the case of the T-shirts, people ordering them straight from the company and they take their production cost out, then send us a check for the remainder.”

To produce the shirt, Moyer had a contract with Gandy Ink and was able to get refunds provided to people who purchased the shirt.

“Gandy was, thankfully, a dream to work with,” Moyer said. “When I explained the issue, they closed the online store and offered parents a 100% refund of their purchase within 5-7 business days to the form of payment they used to purchase the shirt(s).”

The goal was to sell at least 100 shirts, but only 9 were sold and they needed at least 12 to start production of the shirt.

“No shirts were printed – this was a pre-sale that we had to meet a minimum before any production began,” Moyer said.

Moyer was unable to change the shirt’s design due to her contract with Gandy Ink.

“It was too late to request changes at that point, the online store was already open, and I’d sold enough shirts that we couldn’t change things,” Moyer said.

Moyer thinks that the lack of interest came from freshmen not liking the design of the shirt.

“I think the shirts were a good idea but the design and colors for the shirts as a tie-dye shirt should have been a lot different or provided more options to change the color,” freshman Lilly-Ann Pentz said. “I was going to buy a shirt, but I had kept forgetting about the shirts, and I stopped hearing people talk about the shirts so I just never ended up getting one.”