Changing the world with a T-shirt
By James Cullum
The president of the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce is taking on yet another role this week, launching a new clothing line that promotes diversity, peace faith, hope and most importantly, change.Vince Stubbs dreams that one day thousands will wear shirts that say "Try Change," or "Try Diversity," while other lewd shirts are shunned.
"We have freedom of speech and artistic expression," Stubbs said. "TryChange is not restrictive at all, but I expect to be able to walk into a grocery store and not see curse words on T-shirts."
Seeing curse words on a T-shirt at a grocery store last year is exactly what sparked this entire campaign. While Stubbs pushed his cart down the aisles, he saw a teenage girl wearing a T-shirt saying, "Yes, I would [expletive] you."
It was not much later that Stubbs saw a young boy wearing a T-shirt displaying a marijuana leaf, with words below it saying, "Just hanging out with my bud."
"I believe that we are better than that as a society and as a country," Stubbs said.
Stubbs, 44, of Woodbridge is halfway through his one-year term as chamber president and will pass the gavel to his successor in December.
By day, Stubbs is the marketing director of the Springfield Hilton with a staff of five under him. He often says things like: "My business plan is that you have mature, professional, responsible people and you give them the tools to do the job and then let them do it."
Profit is not the main goal of his newest venture.
"Listen, if I just wanted to sell T-shirts, I'd put Scarface on a black T-shirt and leave it at that," Stubbs said. "I'm not trying to preach, but I want people to look at the sweeter side of life."
Stubbs hopes that people will notice his shirts and wonder what the message is about.
"I'm hoping that when they see the shirts it will spark interest into what TryChange is," Stubbs said. "There is a real need for some common decency and we want people to be inspired, to become part of the blog and to share inspiring stories."
Stubbs has just finished sending 30,000 emails announcing the launch. TryChange will soon sell shirts in Spanish, as well, and currently carries totes, journals, baseball caps and dog shirts. See www.Trychange.org.