Let me start with this:
If you bought a shirt, shared a photo, or even just took the time to read this – thank you. Truly.

This past AMC Awareness Day marked our fifth year. Five years of showing up, of sharing Harrison’s story, of trying to raise awareness. Not just for him, but for all the kids like him. From the very first year, we’ve toyed around with the idea of creating a shirt for Harrison. Not just any awareness shirt, though. If we were going to do this, we wanted to do it right.

Awareness shirts tied to an individual cause, rather it be for a kid, a parent, someone fighting cancer – the concept of “awareness shirts” is not anything new. And while the heart behind them is always in the right place, we never wanted to toss something out just for the sake of doing it. We didn’t want something half-baked. We weren’t interested in slapping a ribbon on a shirt and calling it a day. And to be honest, the past four years haven’t exactly left us a lot of breathing room.

Between therapy sessions, medical appointments, road trips to Greenville, track meets, soccer games, graduations, you name it, life has been full-speed, nonstop. That’s true not just for Harrison, but for his siblings, for our whole family. We’ve always had the idea in the back of our minds, but it just never felt like the right time. Until this year.

Confession time: I really wanted to have our mascot design for “Greeney” finished by Harrison’s birthday this past year. That was my original goal. Clearly, that didn’t happen. So in my mind, that meant I had to hit June 1st, the start of AMC Awareness Month. And let me tell you, getting there wasn’t easy. Every design I tried felt off. Nothing clicked.

Until it did.

I knew what I wanted. I bounced ideas off Jenna countless times (and bless her, she put up with every last one of them). I didn’t want something generic. I didn’t want a cartoon character that felt too cutesy or out of place. I wanted something with some soul to it, something that had an old-school vintage mascot vibe.

And while I’m my own worst critic and I don’t feel like I completely nailed it… I do feel like I got close.

So, at the eleventh hour (okay, more like the thirteenth) I threw the store together, got the design uploaded, and we finally put it out into the world.

I could’ve just posted the shirts and said, “Hey, buy one if you want. Proceeds go toward Harrison.” And that would’ve been fine. But that’s not how I wanted to kick things off.

This first release, this first run of #HGStrong shirts, wasn’t about profit. It was about awareness. It was about putting something real out there, for Harrison, for AMC, for other kids and families walking this same road.

So, any money made from that first launch? We decided to donate it. Every cent.

Specifically, we wanted it to go to Harrison’s elementary school, which is currently working to build an inclusive playground. A space not just for him, but for all kids, regardless of their abilities.

That’s what made this feel right.

We ran everything through Fourthwall, which is a platform that lets creators (albeit with large followings) build out merch stores. It’s not something that’ll show up in Google searches; it’s meant to be shared intentionally. Quietly. Personally.

You have to set a minimum price for shirts so the cost of materials, printing, etc., are covered. I priced them as close to that minimum as I could, because again, we weren’t trying to make money. We just wanted people wearing the shirt to help raise awareness and show support.

I also set up free shipping for orders over $75. And yeah, a few of those cost us a little on our end, but I have zero regrets. That was the whole point.

Despite keeping prices low and absorbing shipping costs on a few orders, we still made over $300 in profit. We chose to match the first $100 we made ourselves, and together, that means we are going to be able to donate just over $400 to the school’s inclusive playground fund.

That might not sound like much to some folks, but to me? That’s everything.

#HGStrong

Seeing your pictures come in, you wearing a shirt I designed, with the words “#HGSTRONG” on the front – that hit different.

“#HGSTRONG” was one of the very first hashtags we ever used when sharing Harrison’s story. Back when everything was still new and raw and overwhelming. Back when we were trying to find something, anything, to ground us. That little hashtag became an anchor.

So yeah, it felt right that this first shirt carried it.

I didn’t have a dollar amount in mind when we launched. I honestly didn’t know what to expect. But sitting here now, writing this nearly two weeks into July, I’m still struggling to find the words.

So I’ll keep it simple:

Thank you.

Thank you to every single person who bought a shirt.
Thank you to everyone who shared a photo.
Thank you for supporting Harrison.
Thank you for helping us raise awareness, not just for him, but for kids like him.

We’re only getting started.
But because of you, we’ve already made a difference.