In the fall of 2018, abrSpringville High School student by the name of Kaden Garcia, along with hisbrfather, Jorge Garcia, embarked on a mission to educate and empower peoplebrstruggling with suicidal thoughts and tendencies with their clothing line,br“YourTribe Clothing.”
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The father-son duobreach had experiences related to suicide that compelled them to start this brandbrthat features powerful words like, fighter, living, survivor and beautiful,brwith a semicolon in the place of the letter i, signifying the need to pause.
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Part of the sale ofbrthe shirts would go to provide QPR trainings to schools and individuals to helpbrreduce suicidal behaviors and save lives.
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Serve Daily firstbrwrote about the Garcia’s in December 2018, and recently caught up with them tobrsee how things have gone over the past year. We are pleased to report thatbrtheir message of hope and strength is growing.
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In March of last year,brKaden was named one of Utah Valley Magazine’s Fab 40 for his efforts. In July,bra father who lost his son too soon donated a classic Chevy to YourTribebrClothing to help spread the word of suicide prevention. Singer, Alex Boyebrinvited YTC on stage with him on Aug. 22 during his concert for SuicidebrPrevention.
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And on Sept. 18, thebrorganization held its very first benefit concert and car show to bringbrawareness to the movement.
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While the above werebrall great honors and events, according to the Garcia’s it’s what happened inbrbetween those things that was the measure of their success.
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“It’s been slightlybrover a year since we started, and we have learned so much,” Jorge Garcia said.
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“These past 14 monthsbrwe have been able to be a part of hosting and perhaps being able to instigatebrwell over a dozen QRP trainings in Utah county alone.
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“One of our ownbrmembers of our ‘Tribe’ has become certified to help us continue offering thesebrtrainings to schools and businesses alike. Because of this, we’ve had thebropportunity to teach a class to a group at the Army National Guard in Salt LakebrCounty. We have shipped shirts all over the nation to New Jersey, California,brOregon, Alabama, Texas, Idaho and Tennessee. We also have local people buyingbrthem and mailing them to friends and family.”
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As t-shirt sales asbrwell as donations came in, YourTribe Clothing was able to buy the properbrequipment, laptop, sound equipment, projector and canopy to be able to hostbrevents at any location moving toward.
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“We have plans to hostbrmultiple YourTribe ‘RMH’ Running, Music, Health Fests across the countybrincluding one at Springville High and a spring event in Eagle Mountain at CedarbrValley High,” he said. “Our focus will continue to be high schools as well asbrjunior high’s, bringing awareness through shirt campaigns, music festivals, andbrhealth fairs that bring resources into our communities.
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“We look forward tobrbeing able to continue to go out into our communities and yours to not justbrtalk about Suicide and how help people when they are struggling, but to be ablebrto actually do something about it and help people heal and get the help theybrneed through the resources and information we provide”
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As for Kaden Garcia,brwho recently graduated from Springville High, he is attending business classesbrat Utah Valley University while mother, Holly Garcia and brothers Nicolas andbrJackson start learning how to make shirts and fulfill orders at home. Kaden isbrgrateful for what he has learned and said he hopes to continue his efforts.
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“We never sawbrourselves impacting so many lives, especially when this was intended just forbrmy community and friends,” he said.
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“We love hearing howbrmuch each custom piece means to people from the notes of healing we receivebrfrom people. We love hearing the stories of survival and hope,”
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To stay up to date onbrwhat Your Tribe Clothing is doing, follow the organization on Instagrambr@yourtribeclothing. (Brown is a Serve Dailybrcontributor.)
