KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Lee’s Summit-based FM Print Services has designed “Kansas City Strong” T-shirts in the wake of a deadly mass shooting that marred the end of the Chiefs Champions Victory Parade rally.
Lisa Lopez-Galvan died and 22 other people were injured Wednesday when a dispute among revelers erupted into gunfire. Two juveniles have been arrested, but no charges have yet been filed.
Jennifer Mack co-owns a custom printing shop, which she runs from her home. She and her husband, David, are big Kansas City Chiefs fans.
“I woke up to about six or seven messages this morning,” she said. “We have a little mom-and-pop shop here just out of our home and Lee’s Summit, and I had people asking me if we were going to do any type of shirt for it.”
After Wednesday’s shooting, the thought crossed their minds, but “we were like, ‘No, we really don't want to profit off of a tragedy.’”
The idea of turning it into a fundraiser for Children’s Mercy Hospital — which treated 12 people, including 11 children and nine shooting victims — changed their minds, so $5 from each shirt sold, which can be ordered online, will be donated to the pediatric hospital.
Jennifer, who also works for a school district and had Wednesday off, didn’t attend the parade, opting instead to watch broadcast coverage at home. As coverage was wrapping up, the violence began.
“I was actually watching the news anchors from (KSHB) 41 and they are all looking around trying to figure out why people were running,” Jennifer said. “Originally, I guess some of the people thought it was fireworks, because the rally had just ended and then I think that's when someone started telling them they needed to get down because there could be gunshots in the area. I was just sick to my stomach that such a jubilant time was being changed into a tragic scene.”
Jennifer knows that T-shirts can’t change what happened to the families affected by the shooting, but she also knows how resilient Kansas City and how the community rallies in troubling times.
“It's such a community that does come together and, in unfortunate times, they come together even more and, so I just thought if that's the little part that we could do to try and help bring people together and also give back then that's something we wanted to do,” she said.
Already, since posting the T-shirt design on social media, FM Print Services started receiving orders from all across Chiefs Kingdom.
“I've even had people not from Kansas City that have already placed their orders for them,” Jennifer said. “There's lots of people behind us and lots of people thinking about the area and The Chiefs Kingdom is wide and far, so they want to support us from other places as well. So, I look forward to seeing where this goes and look forward to getting that money to Children's Mercy.”
The United Way of Greater Kansas City and the Chiefs also announced the creation of the #KCStrong fund to benefit shooting victims Thursday and the message of hope was created in chairs outside Union Station.
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