Hi, I'm Robert, founder of Paper Clouds Apparel, and I would like to share with you the story of how this all started.
My mother is a bus driver for special needs kids up in Chico, CA. She has a little girl on her route whose body doesn't break down protein amongst other things, so every day when she gets her strapped in the little girl begins to draw. Often when she gets to her school she will give my mother her drawing. I was back home visiting my folks and happened to see one of the drawings on the fridge. I just thought the characters she had drawn were fantastic and being a t-shirt junkie I made the comment that they would look great on a shirt.
I had been for a while trying to figure out what to do for a career and always knew I wanted to do something involved with helping others. This was the idea I had been looking for. So for almost 2 years I worked construction, bartended, and worked any odd job I could to raise the money to get PCA up and running. I also wanted to keep PCA as green as possible. That is why I use bamboo t-shirts instead of the traditional cotton. Bamboo requires significantly less water to treat and also none of the pesticides or fertilizers needed on cotton shirts. Plus, bamboo is a lot softer than cotton as well. I also used a printing shop that used organic paints and coloring on the shirts.
Once I had raised the money I needed to find a school to work with, I visited ValleyLife and immediately know they were the place for me. ValleyLife has been helping special needs individuals since 1947. Recent government funding to them has been reduced by 15% so they need our help more then ever. Helping ValleyLife is just the the start though. My long term goals are to have PCA raising money for at least one school, learning center, and habilitation center in every state. If I can help make one person with disabilities life better, then I will consider all of this a success.
Thanks for checking this out and hopefully you will buy a shirt and help some amazing friends of mine!
