MedTees for the Holidays

"Kori" - a patient with a MedTee
(Used with permission: click to enlarge)

In 2005, my wife and I started MedTees.com, a website powered by the t-shirt company Cafepress, to support various charities.

The idea of the website is a simple but important one: "We have few role models and few realistic stories about living with a less-than-perfect body, or less than perfect health. How we choose to deal with the cards that life gives us is what this site is all about."  About half of the slogans used on the various t-shirts sold by the site were donated by our patient-customers with proceeds directed to the charity of their choosing.  All proceeds that we receive from the sale of these shirts (about $3/shirt) is donated at the end of each year, proportional to the themes of the t-shirts sold.  (By the way, we're always looking for new ideas for shirts.)

Since we do not purchase advertising, this blog serves as our "ad space" for MedTees.com.  This will be the only blog post used this holiday season to promote the site, so if you're looking for something different to offer a friend who's been through a tough time medically this past year, consider a MedTee.

It might mean more than you realize.

Happy Holidays -

Diane and Wes Fisher

A New Year's Gift

* ding dong *

"Who could that be at the front door? It's dinnertime," I asked.

"I'll get it!" my son said, rushing to the door. ("Strange, he's never moved this fast before, " I thought.)

A few momemnts later...

"Awesome! It came!" He entered the room with a package.

"Dad, do you know where there's some batteries?"

"Uh, I think there's some in the top drawer over there... why?"

A few moments later. He appeared with a new t-shirt on. Not just any t-shirt, mind you, but one upon which he could play the drums. I kid you not. Here, check it out.

File this under "what will they think of next."
(Be sure to play the video on their site to get the whole effect)

Heh.

-Wes

Pinching Childhood Brain Cancer

Our infamous Dr. Rob of Musings of a Distractible Mind has been working tirelessly with Zippy, the lovable red lobster, to raise awareness and funds to support childhood brain cancer research over at FunWithZippy.com. He asked if we'd help support the effort and host the official "Fun With Zippy" t-shirt on our medical t-shirt site MedTees.com, for which we were only too happy to help out.

All proceeds from the sales of these shirts, button, aprons, mouse-pads, stickers and the like with Zippy's logo will support childhood brain cancer research.

Why not help some kids out today and get your very own shirt? After all, you never know where Zippy will show up next.

-Wes

Our Most Popular Shirt for 2007

Our pink "Cancer Picked the Wrong Diva" shirt was the most popular at Medtees.com this year. There's still two days left to receive this one (or any others) for friends or family in time for Christmas.

-Wes

MedTees in the News Again

Pretty cool. Our health-related t-shirt website, MedTees.com, was in the Dallas Morning News on 6 November 2007, this time for our diabetic shirt line.

-Wes

Another 3 Seconds of Fame

Heh. It looks like our diabetes shirts might be popular with the Byetta folks just a little longer.

-Wes

Your Blinkin' Heart

For the craftspeople and engineering wannabe's out there, now's your chance to make your own LED heart t-shirt. You'll need:

A T-shirt that you are willing to sacrifice in the name of love
98 3mm red LEDs (1.8-2.1V @ appx 10 mA)
two DM7474 IC's (flip flops)
one DM7492 IC (2 input nand gate)
one ne555 timer
4.7 uf capacitor (over 9 volts)
.01 uf capacitor
.1 uf capacitor
one variable resistor (100k ohm max)
one 470 ohm resistor
three 1k ohm resistors
one 560 ohm resistor
1 nine volt battery + clip
Foam
Tape
Hard Drive cable (or wire)
Another T-shirt or some fabric
Needle + Thread (or a sewing machine)
wire cutters
Soldering Iron
Solder

I just don't know how comfortable it would be, but it sure would turn some heads.

-Wes

Shameless Self-Promotion for a Good Cause

Now for a bit of shameless self-promotion.

My wife just published a podcast for our Medtees website which makes these goofy medical t-shirts that support lots of charities. You can link to the podcast, produced by PRWeb, on this page and see the shirt that I brought her after her thyroidectomy (such a nice husband, huh?).

Or, if you haven't checked out our ABC 7 News (Chicago) spot filmed earlier, you can view it here and listen to the stories from a few of our customers. (Yes, yours truly is in it, too).

Seriously, there are plenty of good causes that these shirts support, including the American Cancer Society, American Lung Association, Heart Rhythm Foundation, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the American Academy of Orthotics and Prosthetics Project Quantum Leap (for amputees), the Epilepsy Foundation, Crohn's and Colitis Foundation, CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder), American Organ Transplantation Association, Arthritis Foundation, etc., etc. We're happy to say that over $1000 has been donated to these charities so far! JDRF has the highest donations, followed closely by the Heart Rhythm Foundation and American Cancer Society in a close race for second place.

International customers have included folks from Canada (eh?), the United Kingdom (the other side of the pond), Australia (Down Under), New Zealand (WAY Down Under), Puerto Rico (Que pasa?), Greece, Finland, the Netherlands, and Argentina so far. International shipping is pretty reasonable: about $7 US.

And yes, we're still soliciting ideas for new shirts. We do ask that the ideas be "kid friendly" (we like to keep our site at least PG-rated) since kids get diseases, too. But if your idea is used, we'll send you the shirt free. You can e-mail me your idea(s) at wes [at] medtees [dot] com. All contributors are acknowledged and get to decide where to direct the funds for their shirt (sorry, only legitimate 501-3c charitable organizations permitted).

So if you know someone that is sick, isolated, or frustrated with their condition, or someone who loves to poke fun at their condition to advocate for their disease, consider one of these shirts. Get them for you, your friends, or your neighbors and help support your favorite charity this holiday season.

Alright, I'll stop.

-Wes