Cayla Ames--The average CBU student will graduate with more free T-shirts than chapel credits.
California Baptist University is known for giving out free T-shirts to students.
Every event, it seems, is a reason to hand out intricately designed T-shirts. As penny-pinching college students, this is greatly appreciated.
Campus Day shirts are worn on more than just Campus Day, In His Image Week shirts are adorned weekly and various student leadership shirts make regular appearances on campus.
There comes a time when one must ask oneself, what am I going to do with all of these shirts?
Sometimes dressers begin to burst with the abundance of CBU shirts filling them and other times, students graduate and do not know what to do with all their shirts. Here are some examples of what you can do with your mound of shirts:
1. Make a quilt. You can still keep the memories, but in a more concise version.
Instructions can be found at the local craft store, online, from your friends or even your grandmother. That is, if she is an avid quilter and blanket connoisseur. Then someday, if your children decide to come to CBU, you can pass down your blanket as a reminder of the “Lancer Legacy.”
2. Donate them. Send them in a shoe box to Operation Christmas Child. Give them to a local homeless ministry. Or, do what the Campus Activities Board is doing. “We are taking them down to Mexico and giving them to underprivileged children,” Kelsie Cloud, senior and CAB board member, said in reference to their donation project with the old crazies shirts. Whether you agree or not, it’s a blessing to receive all the free T-shirts that we do. So many people are in need of merely a T-shirt, so share the wealth with those in need.
3. Make a tote bag. Carry your surplus of textbooks in CBU style. These are so easy to make, you actually don’t even need a sewing machine! Once you find an easy pattern, available online, you can cut your shirts in adherence to the patterns, stitch, sew, and voila, you have a new bag, perfect for taking to classes, the beach, or on daily errands.
4. Continue to wear them! They are such great reminders of the community that is developed here at CBU. Maybe even try and see if you have enough CBU shirts to wear a new one each day for a whole month.
There are so many ways to re-purpose, re-use, and re-vamp your collection of shirts. Break out the sewing machine and get creative.
Cherish college memories in such a way that you can hold on to them forever, to have something tangible to show your children and grandchildren someday.
