Moon Township, Pa. – When the power went out at Robert Morris University in September, light bulbs went on for campus life officials.
Storms from Hurricane Ike caused widespread power outages in western Pennsylvania that forced RMU to cancel classes Sept. 15-16 at its Moon Township campus and left students without electricity in their dorms. To mark the event, John Locke, assistant director of student life, and John Michalenko, dean of students, came up with the idea to create “RMU Unplugged” commemorative T-Shirts.
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Once it was over, it was easy to chuckle over the power outage and the impositions it forced on students, faculty and staff. But on the gulf coast of Texas, where the hurricane made landfall, thousands of people were forced from their homes and were left with shortages of food, water and electricity for weeks. Hurricane Ike proved to be the third most destructive hurricane in U.S. history, with damages in excess of $27 billion.
So what started out as a cute souvenir turned into an opportunity for the RMU community to help those who truly suffered as a result of the devastating storm. Selling the T-shirts for $1 – or whatever students were willing to pony up – RMU raised $2,500 for relief efforts. |
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“The idea was to give them away but then the suggestion came about to celebrate our ‘power’ by selling the T-shirts and using the money to help fund relief efforts. So many students gave more then we even asked for, which was really touching,” said Locke.
Power outage T-shirts are still for sale and will continue to support the Houston Food Bank. Approximately 1,200 shirts have been sold but plenty remain. For more information, contact John Locke at (412) 397-5408 or email at locke@rmu.edu.