Written by Maithreyi, edited and contributed by Mrs Gellenbeck

Every Wednesday morning, we see a group of students with the brightest of smiles, selling fresh coffee to wake us all up. This mini business is called Coffee Cart and is run by our Olentangy Orange High School students, with assistance from their teachers, in our Specialized Learning Center. The idea started in 2015 and has evolved into a regular (highly anticipated) part of our school year!

Our student run merchandise business, Orange Apparel Co, joined Coffee Cart in a collaboration to bring the same smiles that the Coffee Cart kids bring to ours. Mr Sparks & Mr Zech, big supporters of the original “Coffee Cart Boys,” first had us make shirts for them a few years ago that sported the tagline CCB for Coffee Cart Boys. Last year to expand & promote the operation, business students helped design various logos for a logo design contest, then presented the designs to the Coffee Cart crew. Some of the final logos and runner ups are listed below. Or check out ALL the logos HERE!

Once a winner was chosen, Orange Apparel Co & business students continued with the logo design process, simplifying the winner (top left) to be something we could cut on our vinyl cutter in house, allowing us to keep costs to a minimum. We then got to work on production, creating grey tshirts for many of the Coffee Cart students and their teachers. We did this in house, ordering blank shirts from one vendor and using the design software, vinyl cutters and heat presses in the business lab, Mrs Gellenbeck’s room, 2006. A few teacher “customers” also bought in, ordering their own shirt to support the cause.

This school year, the spirit caught on and Orange Apparel Co. has been making shirts for a huge sum of supportive teachers and staff. As of this post, our business has made over 65 t-shirts between 2021-23… mostly grey, with a few random custom requests like purple! As winter approached this year, we got requests to make sweatshirts and have made over 20 of those as well! The shirts are being made “at cost” as a service project to our amazing coffee crew.

Some of Mrs Gellenbeck’s students noticed how excited & happy she was on Coffee Cart mornings and made her this custom mug as a holiday gift a few years back. Perhaps in the future, we’ll add coffee cups, stickers and other items to the mix? In the end, it is easy to see we have plenty of coffee lovers (like our own Mrs. G) and supporters of this amazing Wednesday morning cup of cheer!