Wear and Share Project moves out of the Highland Park High School classroom

Highland Park High School teacher Michael Arcurie asked his business incubator class a simple question at the beginning of the school year:

Who are you?

For rising senior Blake Tyler Chiou, that was an easy one. The answer was his name.

Tyler, his middle name, is in honor of his older brother, who at 5 years old passed away from neuroblastoma cancer years before Blake was born.

And living up to his teacher’s prompt, Chiou, with his friends, created The Wear and Share Project to give back to communities that had served them and their families through challenging illnesses. 

Who are you? 

After Tyler’s death, Chiou said his parents partnered with Highland Park’s Charity Drive to raise more than $160,000 for children’s neuroblastoma cancer research.

A portion of that money, Chiou said, came from shirts his mom designed and sold.

“My mom made custom shirts for the organizations and for supporters of it, and it was really uniquely designed,” Chiou said. “People really loved them, and it was a big spark for awareness and a lot of fundraising.”

Inspired by his mother’s shirts, Chiou decided to do something similar: partner with pediatric cancer organization, Cal’s Angels, and create apparel to raise money. 

Once Chiou thought up the idea for his class project, he brought on classmates Alex Umansky, Edgars Berzins, Leon Stille and Erik Rodriguez. 

But the “who are you?” question had a different answer for Umansky, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes about 10 years ago.

Umansky is an ambassador for Breakthrough T1D, so when he joined The Wear and Share Project, adding the nonprofit as a beneficiary seemed like a no-brainer.

“It’s been a struggle in my life for as long as I can remember,” Umansky said. “I don’t remember life before it, and to be able to help other kids that are going through that same thing is something I’ve always been passionate about.”

Passion is what makes projects in the business incubator class most successful, said Arcurie.

“(Try) to find something you really love and are passionate about right now,” Arcurie said. “Think about, ‘What do I care about? What moves me? What motivates me?’ And then, ‘How can I make that better?’”

Talking business

The Wear and Share Project is the first operation these students have launched, so naturally learning is a meaingful part of the process. 

As part of the class project, each member of the organization had to take on their own roles fitting with their personal strengths: Chiou designs the shirts, Umansky handles communications, Berzins and Rodriguez manage marketing, and Stille operates the website.

All of the profits from the shirts are given to charity, according to the founders. In fact, Chiou said they have invested their own money, made from tutoring and childcare gigs, into making their business work. 

“It was a really great learning experience for us,” Chiou said. “We came into this with basically little to no business expertise, but I feel like in the year that we’ve been running this nonprofit, we made tremendous growth in our business mindset.”

Another important component to the organization, Umansky said, is community outreach.

The team has attended several events related to their beneficiaries to get the word out about their project. Last winter, they went to the largest Type 1 diabetes convention in Illinois. Umansky said their table was next to big names like Abbott and AbbVie. 

Before attending the convention, the students sought out advice from Arcurie. Arcurie recalled talking to the team for more than an hour to provide insight and ask questions before the big day.

Out of 115 projects, Arcurie has seen in the past decade, he said only five have made it out of the classroom. The Wear and Share Project is one of them.

“It’s rare with teenagers in general (continue their projects) because they’re kids and they’ve got friends and they’ve got sports and six or seven other classes and homework,” Arcurie said. “ … So I just think that really showcases what makes them unique.”

Next up: Expansion?

The Wear and Share Project plans to create their first organization-specific merchandise for one of the biggest breast cancer awareness charities in the country, the Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Foundation. 

Although none of the founding members of the project have been impacted themselves or know someone impacted by breast cancer, they say it seemed like a logical step in their organization. The idea came to them because of their high school’s Breast Cancer Awareness month campaign.

“It seemed like the perfect way to reach this community that’s very tight knit,” Umansky said.

Umansky and Chiou said they hope their project inspires future high school students to make a community impact.

“We had no idea what we were doing, and two out of the three of our partnerships just started with a blank email,” Chiou said. “That was really motivating to see that, as students, we can just make our own way in this world just by trying.”

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