A small group of N.C State students has started a for-profit company that is empowering orphans everywhere.
Founded by Owen Jordan, a junior majoring in environmental science, and Tasso von Windheim, a junior majoring in materials science and engineering, RESQD is a for-profit company that is using drawings from orphans as graphics on apparel which will help to help feed, educate and care for the areas in which these tiny artists live.
For every item of clothing sold by RESQD, 25 percent of the profits are sent to its executive partner Loving Orphans Global, an organization which maintains orphanages in impoverished areas in Uganda, Indonesia, Haiti and Burma, among many others. The remaining 75 percent of the profit is reinvested in the company so it will be able to sustain operating and supply costs.
The company is currently in its research and development phase and has just produced its first shirt, with help in part by a child named Jefry. Jefry lives in an orphanage in Bali, a province in the country of Indonesia. The shirt features Jefry’s drawing of a house next to a mountain and a long windy road. RESQD is also in the process of unveiling its second shirt, “princess Kenti,” designed by another child named Kenti, an orphan from the same tribe as Jefry in Bali.
In order for RESQD to be able to produce the shirts at an adequate rate, the company needs to successfully complete its fundraising campaign.
Jordan said RESQD has a goal of $4,500, which it intends to meet by Tuesday, March 5. This amount will be used to cover shipping supplies, licensing costs, 90 “Jefry” and “Kenti” shirts, website creation and maintenance fees, among others things.
Jordan said it took him five years to find a way he could provide help to other people. One year ago he found his calling when he met two employees of Loving Orphan Global while on a trip in California. The puzzle came together at a Student Network meeting for the N.C. State Entrepreneurship Initiative when he met Von Windheim, co-founder and president of operations, as well as Kristen Bloch, who now serves as their president of media. They were both sold by the idea and hit the ground running.
RESQD received its largest donation in December through a local micro-funding initiative called groundworkk. Founded by Matthew Konar, an alum of both the N.C. State Colleges of Engineering (1997) and Design (2001), groundworkk invites the community to provide its time and charity to new start-ups. Through groundworkk, RESQD was able to raise a grand total of $315.
“Owen and Tasso are such go getters, their business model is impressive, their commitment to giving 25 percent of their proceeds is incredible,” Konar said. “Everything these guys are doing and the distance they’ve come in the short time they’ve been at it has been incredible.”
