#BradyStrong Campaign

Objective: To raise awareness and provide financial support to a chosen CHD family and heart warrior through the sales of a collaborated design that is created to showcase this CHD warrior’s unique personality and fight.

• Raise awareness about Congenital Heart Disease and showcase each individual warrior’s fight with their specific CHD
• Provide financial support (if needed) for food, housing, transportation, etc. *If family opts out of receiving financial support, then all the profits will go to a charity of their choice*
• Bring the CHD family together while introducing this common birth defect to others

Duration: Each individual campaign will last one entire month.  The collaboration and process will be done in the prior month so that we can make sure everything is prepared for sales and marketing by the chosen month.  There will be a new family/campaign every month so the process of connecting with a family and collaborating will occur mid-month before the chosen month of that family/campaign.

Marketing: All marketing will be done through social media and Shopify emails.  The EKG Shop will continuously market the #BradyStrong Campaign on all of its social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Tiktok).  Families are encouraged to share the website/social media pages so that we can bring awareness not just to their personal fight but to CHD awareness in general.

Designs and Collaboration: The designs will be 100% collaborated between The EKG Shop and the CHD family.  Everything from design to logo placement to types of apparel (adults tees, hoodies, kids tees, hoodies) must be 100% approved by the CHD family before marketing and production.  We would like to keep this process within a week so that we can start the marketing campaign and have enough time for production.

• All designs will be done by freelance artists.
• Having a design that has some type of significance to the CHD family or warrior is greatly requested – if there are quotes, images, texts, drawings done by the warrior or anything that is personally connected to the journey of the warrior, those would make for an amazing design.
• We will try to include a wide range of apparel – meaning, instead of just making 100 adult unisex tees, we can make 50 adult tees and 50 kids tees. The goal is to try and include everyone in the picture.
• All apparel will have The EKG Shop logo printed on the back as a locker tag (neck tag).
• Production for each project can range from one week to 3 weeks depending on the type of process (either screen printing or heat press).

Sales: All sales will be done through The EKG Shop’s main website.  All sales for each individual campaign will be totaled at the end of the month and 100% of the profits will be sent to that family.  To be transparent and honest, we will be willing to provide all records (receipts, reports) for that family so that they can trust in our belief that this is more about giving back than it is about making money.  A check will be sent to the family once the total profit has been provided.

Why Are We Doing This?

When our son Brady was about to be born on May 7, 2019, my husband Aaron had a strong urge to do something that would bring awareness to the fight our warrior was about to endure.  He didn’t just want to bring financial calm to our family (we moved from Las Vegas to Michigan simply because Mott Children’s was a highly ranked Pediatric Cardiology center and there were personal ties to this hospital that made this transition possible) but also wanted to give back to those that truly needed the help.  Housing, transportation, food – all these staples in our daily lives become harder to schedule and mull over when your baby is about to undergo open heart surgery.  And so he started his own fundraiser - #TeamBrady – to raise enough money to cover our medical expenses.  But he also wanted to support four more families that were going through the same thing as us.

He managed to raise $8000 within almost a month – an entire month that was spent by our son’s bedside after he underwent his first open heart surgery 3 days after birth.  Not only did that cover our expenses but he was also able to run a small campaign for another family we met in the waiting room during Brady’s surgery.  That was the goal.  To help others, even if they didn’t ask for it.

Although he was only able to help one more family, the message was clear – helping others was a part of us now.  It’s not like we weren’t giving people in the past – blood donations here and there, 5K charity runs – but this was a whole different level.  This was something that had a personal attachment to it – this was a way to share our son’s strength and tenacity.  This was a way to share his story – and hopefully share others as well.

That was almost 3 years ago.  Now that I started this business, I felt that need to do more just like my husband felt right before Brady’s birth.  To give back more.  And so I started this #BradyStrong Campaign.  Because I want to show others not just our own warrior’s fight, but also other heart warriors just like him.  That scar on our son’s chest isn’t just a reminder of what he has had to endure for the first 3 years of his life – it’s there to show us what it means to be strong and live a life full of happiness, love and selflessness.

Plus apparel is almost all I know.  My family ran a screen-printing business for over 30 years and I grew up printing tees and pricing hoodies since I could walk.  It’s in my blood.

 

Let's All Be Strong Like Our Heart Warriors

 

Justina