Photo by Michael Erb Edison Middle School eighth-graders Lamari Buffington, left, Abbey Brown, center left, Alexis McMillion, center right, and Kaleb Tanner, right, hold T-shirts designed, produced and sold through their Empowerment Class which challenges students to complete real-world projects. The students designed T-shirt logos for the school and also have produced track apparel for Edison athletes.

PARKERSBURG — Students at Edison Middle School have created and sold more than 300 pieces of clothing as part of this year’s eighth-grade Empowerment Class.

The class presents students with a real-world goal and challenges them to find ways to address and solve issues along the way. This semester’s class was challenged to start and run an actual business, and students decided to create apparel for classmates.

Teacher Morgan Bunner said the clothing is pre-made, but students designed and voted on a variety of logos for T-shirts. Four designs were chosen out of more than a dozen created by students. The chosen logos were then printed out and placed onto pre-made clothing by students.

“They handle everything, including the receipts and keeping track of how much they cost,” Bunner said. “They’re all very enthusiastic.”

The project began about three months ago, and class has sold 65 shirts. The initial run was so successful, administrators challenged the students to design and create logos for track apparel, such as hoodies and sweat pants. The students have so far sold more than 250 pieces of track apparel and continue to design and sell more.

Photo by Michael Erb Edison Middle School eighth-grader Meadow Mowrey tallies receipts Wednesday from the sale of shirts whose logos were designed and produced by the school’s Empowerment Class.

“Our goal is not to just sell T-shirts, but also mugs and canvas bags and such,” Bunner said. “We’ve been swamped by these projects, but that’s the plan for the end of the year to have more than just T-shirts.”

Prices are kept low, about $10 per shirt, to make the clothing affordable to all students. The class even decided to offer an “employee discount,” dropping the price to $8 for those in the Empowerment program. Any profit earned in the business goes back into the school, they said.

The students also elected a board of directors to oversee the process.

“It’s pretty cool,” said eighth-grader Kaleb Tanner. “You get to not do school work. You do this and it’s a good life lesson. You learn about money and job opportunities.”

“My favorite part is when we bring new groups down every day. I get to communicate with new people,” said fellow eighth-grader Alexis McMillion.

Photo by Michael Erb Edison Middle School eighth-graders Alexis McMillion, left, and Kaleb Tanner, right, demonstrate how logos are applied to the blank shirts as part of their Empowerment Class. The clothing is pre-made, but all of the design and production is performed by students at the school.

“It’s just fun to do, to make the shirts,” said eighth-grader Lamari Buffington.

“We’re hoping this will continue through next year,” Bunner said. “These students will be gone, but we’ll be able to bring in a new class and train them and have them do their own ideas.”

Photo by Michael Erb Edison Middle School eighth-grader Duane Foutty works on a T-shirt logo design Wednesday at the school as part of the Empowerment Class. The logos can be produced and applied to different kinds of apparel which are then sold by the class.