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Harvey High School student Conner Bates displays clothing from his ABC Apparel company during his Feb. 28 marketing-entrepreneurship class. Bates designs clothing with positive mental health messages, donating a portion of the funds to a local mental health organization. (Bryson Durst — The News-Herald).
A Harvey High School student is hoping to use his business to improve mental health by making clothes with positive messages and donating a portion of the funds to a local nonprofit.
Conner Bates started ABC Apparel in 2022 and has worked to grow the company as part of Harvey’s marketing-entrepreneurship course. He said that he plans to donate 10 percent of each sale to support mental health, and he recently gave $100 to the National Alliance on Mental Illness Lake County affiliate during a Feb. 28 class.
“I know a lot of people like myself that struggle with mental health, and I know it’s definitely a problem in the world lately,” Bates said. “It’s really silent, and not a lot of people like to actually speak up about it.”
Marketing-entrepreneurship teacher Nell Rapport said that “there’s still a little bit of stigma” surrounding the topic of mental health, explaining that “mental health issues have been kind of on the forefront since the pandemic.”
“We’re seeing with the adolescent and young adult population that the pandemic hit very hard in terms of emotional health and that sort of thing, so I was very impressed that he was taking a lead on that,” she added.
Bates said that he “always wanted” to found ABC Apparel. Local mentors from the class have helped him bring that vision to life.
“There’s a lot of things that I really didn’t know how to do, and if I did it myself, it probably would have taken me five times longer than when these guys came in,” he said.
Paul Catalano, a class mentor and the executive finance manager at IntroLend Momentum in Mentor, praised Bates’ efforts.
“He had the product and the idea and the whole concept down prior to even coming to the class,” Catalano said, noting that he and another mentor primarily helped Bates with aspects such as the company’s business model and margins.
Bates uses a heat press to make T-shirts and is expanding to include hoodies and sweatpants as well.
Bates is also working with his mentors on developing a website, adding to his current abc.apparel1 page on Instagram. He hopes that the website will allow him to donate more funds to mental health nonprofits.
“That’s the whole main purpose of everything,” Bates said. “Like, it’s cool to be able to say I make shirts and I make hoodies and stuff like that, but the real part behind it is being able to actually make the difference and spread the positive message and donate the money.”
The first donation from ABC Apparel was accepted by NAMI Greater Cleveland Executive Director Katie Jenkins at the Feb. 28 marketing-entrepreneurship class. Jenkins formerly served as executive director for the group’s Lake County affiliate, and she accepted the award on its behalf.
“NAMI is an organization that provides completely free services to family members and individuals with a mental health condition, and any donations, they go straight to providing those services for free,” Jenkins said.
Bates reflected on his company’s growth and the opportunity to donate to NAMI.
“I started out with $50 in my basement, and I really just wanted to make the change and be able to actually donate money towards mental health charities, like NAMI, so it’s nice to see that now,” he said.
Rapport noted that students in the school’s marketing-entrepreneurship class, also known as ECITY, began working on their companies with mentors in November. Before that, they created a class business making and selling chocolate-covered pretzels.
“I think it’s something that you can’t really learn about in a textbook, and we’ve been able to really get the kids out of the classroom and into the business world, and make it a very hands-on, experiential program, so I think that’s been the value,” she said, adding that some of the businesses have continued after the class.
According to Rapport, there was also a “full circle” aspect to Jenkin accepting the donation from Bates. Jenkins was in her “first business class at Harvey,” while Bates will be in her last class before she retires.
Catalano expressed his appreciation for the class, noting that he has served as a mentor for around five years.
“It’s very nice to see students like Conner and the rest of the students be proud about something, create something from nothing, see it come to fruition, and then be able to talk about it,” he said. “It’s just a class that, as long as it’s going on, I’ll be a part of, from now and years to come.
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