Westlake High School T-shirt drive benefits Austin refugees

Two Westlake High School students finished a school effort Jan. 12 that brought in more than 1,200 T-shirts that will help refugee women living in Austin.

The T-shirt drive, spearheaded by WHS students/sisters Catherine Anne and Rebecca Prideaux, benefited Open Arms, an Austin social enterprise that provides refugee women with a livable wage to produce clothing made with recyclable materials. The T-shirts collected at WHS will be used as raw material for future clothing made by the refugees.

"What's cool about this project is that it's a community school helping a community business employ people right here in Austin," Open Arms Founder Leslie Beasley said.

The Prideaux sisters learned about Open Arms after their brother worked with Beasley's husband in Africa providing microfinance loans. Catherine Anne, a senior, said she was impressed with how the Open Arms refugees worked together and were proud of what they did. She said a T-shirt drive at WHS seemed like a good way to help the business.

"We're a very generous community, and our demographic definitely wears T-shirts a lot," she said of fellow students.

Beasley started Open Arms in October 2010 after working with refugees in Africa and India. After returning to Austin, she realized there was a large local refugee population. She opened Open Arms as a way to help refugees break out of the cycle of poverty by providing a livable wage while also creating earth-friendly clothing, Beasley said.

Clothing from Open Arms, which is a wholesaler, is sold in 31 stores in eight states, including the University of Texas Co-op and Whole Earth Provisions. For more information, visit www.theopenarmsshop.com.