Students in Mr. Jordan Gannett’s intro to business class are honing their entrepreneurial skills, testing their salesmanship and raising money for a local food pantry - all while giving Gang Green, Section V’s best student cheering section, one more tool with which to spur their fellow Braves on to victory.
Earlier this school year during a unit on entrepreneurship, Gannett’s students expressed interest in creating a class business.
“At first, I had planned to do a bake sale but you have to use a state-regulated kitchen and I think it would have been a lot of hoops to jump through,” said Gannett, who was hired on as a long-term substitute earlier this school year. “So I just asked them during class one day: ‘Do you guys want to do something else?’ They brainstormed and the main idea they came to was apparel.”
Students pitched Avon-branded shirts and PJs, but such items would have required the class to secure orders and sizes ahead of time, said Gannett.
Jack R., a junior in Gannett’s class, said he and his fellow students also pitched Gannett on shirts and hats featuring his face.
“We love him, we think he’s an awesome guy, but I guess he didn’t really like that idea,” said Jack.
“I told them nobody would want to buy that hat,” Gannett added.
But eventually, Gannett’s students came up with a product that had potential.
“A couple of the students came down to my class one day and they were like ‘Oh, we should sell rally towels,’” Gannett said. “I was like ‘Alright, that sounds like a good idea.’ There’s no sizing involved - you just make the same thing and everyone buys the same one.”
With a solid idea in hand, Jack set about creating various designs which his fellow students then voted on.
“To start the first few designs, I had to search over the Internet for ideas - you're kind of just working with a blank slate so it's hard to know exactly what you want,” he said. “But as soon as you figure out ‘Alright, this is basically what we want,’ you kind of just start building and progressing from there.”
Using Canva, a graphic design website, and with a helping hand from High School Business Teacher Leigh Major, Jack finalized the design his classmates ultimately voted to approve. The winning design features the words “Gang Green” in a dripping, green font followed by the message: We Will Infect You.
“We wanted to get the green in there for Avon and I wanted to get the drippiness in there. In previous designs - we did bucket hats once - they had that drippy design, so I thought that'd look nice,” said Jack. “I mean gangrene is an infection, so we wanted to reflect that.”
After deciding on a design, students used the Communication Club’s heat press in the High School Library to make about 80 towels, which they’ve been selling for $5 during lunch and home basketball games.
“I think we're right around 35 to 40,” said Gannett. “We’ve sold about half of what we bought in the first place and we’ll probably keep selling until they’re gone or it seems we've run into a couple days when nobody’s coming to buy them.”
Once Gannett’s class is done selling, they’ll pay back the Communications Club for the materials they used to make the towels and are planning to donate 20 percent of their profits to a local food pantry
“This whole process has really been led by the students and I'm super proud of all the work they've done and ideas they've come up with,” said Gannett. “They’ve really taken ownership of it.”
A standout forward for the Avon/Livonia/Geneseo Lakers hockey team, Jack hopes his experience creating designs for the rally towels comes in handy when he sets about making a logo for the hockey apparel and equipment business he one day hopes to found.
“I think it’s great to see all of us working together and coming together and creating our own product,” Jack said of the project. “That’s what we’re in intro to business for, to become better at business, so I think that’s pretty cool.”