Londonderry High Orders Hundreds of 'Boston Strong' Shirts

Atkinson-based graphics designer Dave Tremblay tried to shield his two sons, 7 and 9, from the devastation of the Boston Marathon bombings, especially the news that an 8-year-old was among the three who died in the blasts.

But eventually Tremblay's boys found out about the death of the Dorchester boy whom the world has come to know as Martin Richard. They began asking questions, like what they could do to help Richard.

No stranger to philanthropic causes, Tremblay decided to use his business, Atkinson Graphics, to answer his kids.

Fast forward 10 days after the Copley Square explosions, and Tremblay not only has designed a pretty cool 'Boston Strong' T-shirt, but he has sold roughly 2,500 of them.

A total of 350 of those shirts were sold to Londonderry High School through a third party, according to Tremblay. Those will be sold at the school.

Knowing he had to reach out to other major customers, Tremblay contacted David Macary, president of the Windham Baseball Softball League, early on in the process.

"I said, 'hey Dave, would you like to carry maybe 24 shirts and sell them?," said Tremblay.

But Macary instead ordered 350 shirts, and he certainly isn't storing them away for a rainy day.

"We have well over 300 shirts sold, just through the Windham Baseball and Softball website," said Macary. "The response has been phenomenal."

Macary said the notice that they were selling the shirts went out the night before Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was apprehended by law enforcement in Watertown.

A total of $2 from every shirt will go directly to Martin Richard's family, according to Tremblay.

Massachusetts State Prison ordered 100 shirts. A total of 36 T-shirts were also donated to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

"They wanted to give them to their patients," said Tremblay of the hospital. "They actually still gave us a $200 donation but we told them we don't want any money.

The money donated will in turn be donated to Martin Richard's cause.

Shirt sales have come entirely through word of mouth. Since the decision was made to make the shirts, Tremblay said that all hands have been on deck at his business.

"We're all working to do this, just to get this done," said Tremblay. "We shut down all presses just for this one project."

Tremblay said that if any other local business can do something for last week's victims, they certainly need to try.

In the past, he has stepped up to raise $4,000 for United Way following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. In this situation, Tremblay said that there really is no deadline to the campaign.

"We're just going to keep going," he said. "I would love to give them as much as we possibly can."