Upcoming CCCA Shows

Be sure to visit the CRC imprinting both at the following shows, you might walk
away with some cool new threads!

2011 Mid-Atlantic Sectional at Americas Keswick (show date: January 26th @ 12pm)

2011 Allegheny Fireside Sectional event at Laurelville (show date: March 1st @ 12pm)



Two years after the program’s inception, 119 employees clad in blue graduation gowns tossed their tasseled mortar-board hats into the air to celebrate their achievement at the emotional commencement ceremony.

Hanes executives and representatives from the Honduran Department of Education passed out diplomas to the class of 2010 at the Convention and Expo Center in San Pedro Sula, the nation’s industrial center and second largest city.

“I started going to school when I was young but never finished,” said Gennie Maribel Zelaya, one of the Hanes employee graduates. “It has been a challenging journey and it took a lot of pride and determination to get here. I work fulltime and have several children who are all in school themselves. It’s not easy to study when you have to work and help your children do their homework as well. Today, all of those sacrifices paid off.”

Hanes, which has more than 12,000 employees in Honduras, started the continuing education program in February 2009, and more than 1,000 Honduran employees participate in the program at no cost.

The employees attend classes on Saturdays in the towns of Villanueva and Choloma near San Pedro Sula in schools close to the plants where they work. The program is available to associates at 10 Hanes apparel manufacturing and sewing facilities.

“Education is a fundamental need in the communities where our employees live and work,” said Maria Elena Sikaffy, director of human resources for Hanes in Central America. “We believe in supporting education because education can change the world by changing people’s lives.”

The company and its employees have an ongoing relationship with the schools that hold the Saturday continuing education classes. Hanes recently invested approximately $121,000 and employees volunteered thousands of hours to renovate the Manuel Bonilla School in Villanueva and José Trinidad Cabañas School in Choloma to improve the facilities’ infrastructure and provide better resources for teachers and students.

The projects were carried out by more than 1,000 employee volunteers from Hanes plants as part of the company’s continuing commitment to being an active participant in the communities where it operates. Improvements included remodeled classrooms, kitchens and bathrooms; upgraded educational materials; new ceilings; outdoor landscaping; potable drinking water; and better ventilation systems.

“These schools will greatly improve the quality of life for more than 1,700 children in these communities as well as our employees who continue their studies on Saturdays,” Sikaffy said. “We plan on expanding Hanes’ continuing education programs in 2011 and implementing a virtual university model to serve even more of our employees.”

One such effort involves limited-edition, Haitian-made "Help Haiti Heal" T-shirts that went on sale yesterday at more than 900 American Eagle Outfitters stores throughout the U.S. and worldwide at www.ae.com/haiti. The goal? To raise awareness and crucial funding for the country's ongoing needs. The entire purchase price of $15.50 will be donated to Concern Worldwide's education program in Haiti with the potential to raise as much as $1 million.

"Concern Worldwide is thrilled to have this opportunity to partner with American Eagle Outfitters and join forces to raise funds to build schools and bring education to earthquake-affected children in Haiti," says Tom Arnold, CEO of Concern Worldwide US. "Education is critical, but is always underfunded in humanitarian emergencies. American Eagle and their great, young customers will help us get Haiti's children back to school and pave the way to long-term healing and recovery."

Proceeds raised from the sale of the Help Haiti Heal T-shirts will reach 30,000 children by:

• Rebuilding and repairing two schools that were destroyed during the earthquake
• Training 40 new teachers and school officers.
• Providing 1,000 earthquake-affected children with access to primary education.
• Equipping the two schools with classroom furniture (desks, chairs), learning resources and teaching equipment.
• Installing clean water systems, latrines and sanitation at the two schools.
• Ensuring that the most vulnerable children in the communities receive a primary education.
• Helping pay the salaries of teachers.

So far, several stars such as The Edge, Ryan Seacrest, The Script, Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo, Paul Bettany, Don Cheadle, Garcelle Beauvais, Shaggy and Sean Paul have joined the effort by helping spread the word about the T's, which are available for purchase through Jan. 17.

To learn more about the initiative, head to www.ae.com/haiti.

Originally Published on USA TODAY



But it is awesome to see they are more than just a blank t shirt manufacturer. Here is an article about their generosity following the earthquakes in Haiti…

Outsourcing is a business transaction. But sometimes outsourcing gets personal. When natural disaster strikes, sometimes the best aid comes from a long-term outsourcing partner.

Palm Apparel in Carrefour, Haiti, opened its doors in 1998. The T-shirt manufacturer, which employs 1,500 people, works strictly for Gildan, a Montreal, Canada company. They signed their first outsourcing contract in 2002.

Gildan supplies activewear for the global screenprint market from the United States to Asia Pacific. It sells T-shirts, sport shirts, and fleece in large quantities to wholesale distributors as undecorated blanks, which screen printers then decorate with designs and logos. Consumers ultimately purchase Gildan’s products in venues such as sports, entertainment, corporate events, and travel and tourism destinations.

This is an international outsourcing arrangement. The Canadian company has a textile mill in the Dominican Republic (DR). It sends the majority of the fabric it produces in the DR to outsourcing suppliers in Haiti like Palm for sewing. Palm sews T-shirts all year long and sends the completed products to Gildan’s warehouses.

Gildan sends help

On January 12, 2010 a devastating earthquake hit Haiti. Sixty percent of Palm’s main manufacturing building collapsed. Two hundred workers are still unaccounted for. “We feel they may have died during the earthquake at Palm,” according to Alain Villard, President and General Director, Palm Apparel.

Gildan jumped into action. Forty-eight hours later, executives rented a helicopter to survey the damage. They sent containers with 25,000 boxes of food for Gildan and Palm employees in Haiti; one box will feed a family for up to five days. They sent tents for temporary housing, medicine, baby clothes, and flashlights with batteries.

They helped financially, too. They made a $50,000 donation to the Canadian Red Cross, reports Peter Iliopoulous, Vice President responsible for government affairs at Gildan. Then the leadership team formed the Gildan Haiti Relief and Reconstruction Fund to help employees of both companies who died or were hurt in the earthquake. To date, the fund has collected $417,000, donations from Gildan employees and the company itself. Gildan has a management office of approximately 40 employees in Haiti.

Gildan “is committed to maintaining a strategic presence in Haiti” because of its mills in the Dominican Republic, the Haitian trade preference programs for duty-free goods sent to the United States, and the close proximity of Haiti to its customer base. “We produce 15 million shirts a year there,” Iliopoulous reports.

Palm held a mass on February 12 to honor the dead And Gildan executives attended. Palm started work again on February 15 and continues to operate with just 450 workers in the 40 percent of the plant that still remains. The manufacturer was able to send the remainder of its work to a sister factory an hour away.

Gildan also advanced working capital to Palm so it could rebuild its factories and replace or repair damaged equipment.

Villard says Gildan’s generosity is helping more than just the service provider. He says there are currently 28 textile factories employing 30,000 workers in Haiti. The executive adds one factory job translates into four jobs in the area, like the cook who provides the midday meal. “Their generosity is good for the country and the people of Haiti. It is our responsibility to build bigger and better in this area where people need jobs badly,” he says.

Original article “How an Outsourcing Buyer Helped its Service Provider in Haiti after the Earthquake” by Beth Ellyn Rosenthal can be found here.



Whether you're youth group, sports team, or an apparel business, if you're looking for custom screen printed shirts, you've come to the right spot. We've just launched our Custom Tshirts page this week full of useful information including detailed descriptions of various inks and printing styles we offer.

As always if you're looking to stand out and get printing done that no one else can do, CRC is here to help. We specialize in large imprint areas and out of the "safe" zone printing, like across seams and up over the shoulder.

Like the shirts above?  You can buy them directly from one of our clients, just click on the photos.

From the site...
"Unlike generic t-shirts or dime-a-dozen home decor products purchased at malls across the nation, every item created at Lacuna Vaegus is inspired by Scripture, and designed carefully with meaningful Christian messages. The hope is that in the end the messages that inspired these designs will not only show honor to God, but also reach out and connect with non-believers, the "wandering souls" of the earth."

Lacuna Vaegus was established in August 2009, and their website just went live in June 2010!

CRC imprinting is proud to be a part of Zack's vision & his clothing line. For some of the most truely unique designs and printing processes around, you have to check his website, and buy a shirt or two while you're there.