Giving the Shirts Off Their Backs for Ones With Positive Message

A harried parent wanders through a swap meet, picking up clothing items for the kids. “T-shirts on sale.” She grabs a bunch.

Next thing you know, here are kids as walking advertisements for a popular beer or the latest wine cooler. Or there goes a 12-year-old with a shirt proclaiming the joys of smoking marijuana.

“The parents might be sort of unsophisticated and not make the association,” says Joe Huertas, a program coordinator for Pasadena’s Alcohol & Drug Dependencies Program.

How do you stop all the “negative messages?” Outreach worker Sheila Clark had a brainstorm. How about a one-day exchange program? Turn in a negative T-shirt and get a positive one for free. Plus a baseball cap.

On Sept. 1, any child under 16 can go to Jackie Robinson Center, 1020 N. Fair Oaks St., between noon and 5 p.m. and exchange the swap meet specials for a morale booster.

The program hopes that dozens of participating kids will start the school year with this message emblazoned on their shirts: “School is in, tell a friend, drugs and alcohol ain’t no win.”