The bookstore is encouraging students to vote for the newest T-shirt design they will be selling.

For the third year, the N.C. State Bookstores is holding a campus-wide T-shirt design contest to benefit the Pack Promise program. Pack Promise is a program that gives complete financial packages including scholarships, grants, loans and work-study opportunities to low-income students accepted as an incoming freshman.   

John Starbuck, Bookstore marketing manager, said this year’s contest yielded the best results with a total of 118 design entries. 

“The first and second year we received about 40 entries.  We are excited this year because we received many more entries, and there are a lot of good designs,” Starbuck said.  “We have had a terrific turnout, and the final decision will definitely be a challenge.”

Students can vote on the T-shirt they like most from the semi-finalist selections until Oct. 1.  To vote, students should visit the NC State Bookstore homepage, and look for the “vote now” icon.  The T-shirt will be unveiled by the bookstore staff on Nov. 12, when it will go on sale to students. 

T-shirts will cost around $10, but the bookstore can’t determine the actual price until students select the design.  Unlike last year, the bookstore has decided to leave the winning t-shirt a mystery until the unveiling to encourage hype throughout the campus, according to Starbuck.

“We aren’t going to tell students or the design winner which T-shirt is chosen until the day the T-shirts go on sale.  We want everyone to be excited about it…We want T-shirt buyers to be excited about helping out Pack Promise,” Starbuck said.

With every T-shirt sale, Pack Promise receives $2.  Gerri Williams, associate director of the Pack Promise program, said she is grateful for the bookstore’s generosity.

“We offer a huge thank-you to the bookstore.  It was all their idea to give a part of the proceeds to us, and for that we really are thankful,” Williams said.  

Although this is her first year working with Pack Promise, Williams said she is excited to be part of what she thinks will become an annual tradition, and said she looks forward to watching the contest grow more as the years go on. 

“I absolutely think this will become a stable annual event.  I’m hoping to get more parts of the university as well as the N.C. State community involved like Parent and Family Services, the Alumni Association and the N.C. State Homecoming Committee,” Williams said. 

The winner of the contest will receive a $300 gift card to the NCSU Bookstores, with second place receiving a $100 gift card, and third place receiving a $50 gift card.  According to Starbuck and Williams, the prize for everyone who buys a T-shirt is knowing they are giving back to the NC State community, specifically Pack Promise.

 ”When we started the contest three years ago, the purpose was to get students involved with their bookstore,” Starbuck said.  “While planning it, we then thought ‘why not make it a fundraiser?’ So that’s what we did.”  

As far as future contests, Starbuck said his main advice to interested students was to let personal creativity flow.  

“Once you come up with a good theme, then you can figure out what to do with the artwork,” Starbuck said.  “The most important thing is to then tie everything together by letting your creative side take over.”