Business owner donates T-shirts honoring Uvalde shooting victims

SAN ANTONIO — In the wake of tragedy, surviving community members often express feelings of helplessness or a desire to make a difference in some small way. For San Antonio business owner Johana Garcia, paying her respects at the growing memorial site outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde following Tuesday’s mass shooting felt necessary. 

“I have a 10-year-old at home,” Garcia said. “To even think of what they went through, the fear, you know, the whole time, the ones that did survive, that were laying there… it’s not for anybody to go through, (even) less a child.”

Garcia, who makes and sells T-shirts out of her house, said she traveled to Uvalde with her mother. But before they left, Garcia decided to make custom T-shirts with the faces of the victims that she and her mother would wear to the memorial as a way to honor their lives. 

Garcia’s mother decided to push her daughter to take her action a step further. 

“She said, ‘What if I buy your shirts and you donate them?'” Garcia told KENS 5 reporter Henry Ramos. “I posted it on my Facebook and friends and family started donating, so we ended up with like over 150 shirts that we brought to give away.” 

Garcia was down to her last 20 T-shirts when she spoke with Ramos, but said she also hopes to be able to send some shirts to the families of the victims. 

“I just wanted to do something and making shirts… is how I found the way to help.”

MOVING: Memorial outside this Uvalde Day Care Center. Chairs for all the children and the two teachers. It has their names. People are leaving messages too. #kens5 pic.twitter.com/XiswMMWOuI

— Henry RamosTV (@HenryRamosTV) May 29, 2022