Two college students are on a mission to help raise spirits and unite people across the country. It all comes down to a t-shirt campaign, "Apart But Together."
"We're in a tough time...when we first started this, we were feeling really isolated," said Grant Rosado.
Rosado said when the coronavirus pandemic began, he and his friend, Chris Rodriguez were in the same situation as a lot of other people: their college courses switched to online courses and they were out of work.
"We lost our jobs and we were like, it sucks for us but we were kind of just thinking for people who live paycheck to paycheck, that must be really hard," said Rosado. "So our sympathies went out to them."
The two then came up with the idea to sell t-shirts for those in need. On them, the slogan, in different languages, that all mean "apart but together."
With 100 percent of funds going to United Way, the three words hold a lot of meaning, during a time of solitude.
"Our message is that: it doesn't matter where you are or where you're from, or what language you speak, or what state you're from...what matters is that we're apart but together," said Rosado. "We're all doing something for the greater good."
The two said they were inspired by other students at their school who started the "Boston Strong" shirts after the Boston marathon bombing.
"We thought, it's a similar time of crisis. We can do something similar," said Rodriguez.
Rodriguez said he has family and friends in the Big Bend who already shown support.
"We've got a big response from Tallahassee, a lot of my good friends go to FSU and they've been supporting and ordering shirts," said Rodriguez.
Now, the two are hoping the campaign goes national so that they can help even more people.
"We really are all together in this, even though we are all apart," said Rodriguez. "That's just the whole message, that I could be wearing the same t-shirt as someone across the country and we could be supporting the same cause."
"Your best doesn't stand alone, it stands with everyone else's," said Rosado.
Their goal is to sell 1,000 t-shirts. So far, they've only sold about seventy and raised about $1,000 dollars.
If you'd like to buy a shirt, click here.
