The following letter was submitted by Celine Orabi, Wilton High School Class of 2016. She’s organizing a fundraiser to benefit the Wilton Food Pantry.   

To the Editor:

Hello!  I’m Celine Orabi, I’m a 2016 Wilton High School alum and a recent grad of the University of Rhode Island. While at school, I worked for a company called University Tees, which is a custom apparel company mainly geared toward college students and members of Greek life. However, this year I organized an order to benefit our local [Narragansett, RI] food pantry and it was hugely popular and I managed to raise over $1,000 with the order.

I wanted to do something similar here, so I’ve put together this custom shirt that showcases many of the places and establishments that make Wilton so special and really feel like “home.” Times are tough for many people but if there’s anything I’ve learned from living here, it’s that Wilton truly does care about its own community. A portion* of the proceeds from every shirt ordered will be donated to the Wilton Food Pantry, to give back to our own in this time of need.

If we could donate even $100 that’s $100 towards an amazing cause that they did not have before. I think as a community of people with privilege it is extremely important to give back in a time of need like this and I would love for it to be something tangible that the whole community can participate in; something I loved about my order that I did for Narragansett was that I can see so many people walking around in the shirts and sweatshirts, knowing that they love their community but also that their money was donated to a good cause.

The items are available in both adult and youth sizes (unisex). The order form closes on Tuesday, July 21, at which time these custom items will go into production. Please let me know if you have any questions [via] email.

Celine Orabi

*We asked Celine how much of the proceeds will benefit the Food Pantry and here’s what she told us:  

“Each item has a price range. The more shirts that are ordered, the more I can lower the price to the lower end of the price range.

“I work solely off commission for UTees. I am essentially forfeiting my commission on this order by donating it to the food pantry–the more shirts I sell the more I can donate. With the Narragansett order, I donated about $1,200 in commission–my total commission on the order–to the food pantry! I say a portion of the proceeds because depending on how many shirts are sold the donation amount will vary from 5% up to 25%. My ultimate goal is to donate as much as possible.

“The rest of the proceeds/money earned from the order is essentially just production of the shirts.”