SHOP@USC salutes local police during National Police Week

SHOP@USC has a soft spot for local law enforcement officials. As National Police Week takes place May 14-20, Upper St. Clair High School students are pulling out all the stops for the boys in blue.

For the last two weeks, students in SHOP@USC have been selling student designed, student-made National Police Week T-shirts. The effort was initiated by senior Bella Oprison.

“We have some very special students in our school district! One in particular requested that SHOP@USC create a shirt for National Police Week as a way to raise funds for the Police Memorial in Washington, D.C.” Michelle Zirngibl, SHOP@USC coordinator, said. “That same day, she came to SHOP@USC during her lunch period and designed her dream shirt, producing it and now selling it to anyone who would like to support the cause.”

National Police Week shirts are available for $15 – with $5 of every shirt being donated to the Police Memorial in Washington, D.C.

In addition to making and selling T-shirts, SHOP@USC students and their teachers visited the Upper St. Clair Police Department on May 17 to deliver a card and cookie cake in recognition of this special week.

This is not the first police-related project that SHOP@USC has undertaken. In November 2016, students created and sold buttons to honor fallen Canonsburg Police Officer Scott Bashioum and in support of his family.

For more information or to order a National Police Week T-shirt, contact Mrs. Zirngibl at SHOP@USCsd.k12.pa.us.

SHOP@USC is a pioneering, student-run business, which operates fully through the collaboration between students with significant disabilities and their same age peers without disabilities. Within SHOP, students produce and sell greeting cards, business cards, signs/banners, laser-engraved items and USC spirit wear merchandise.

In March 2017, SHOP@USC was recognized as one of three national Grand Prize Winners in the 23rd annual Magna Awards program sponsored by the National School Boards Association’s magazine, American School Board Journal. The Magna Awards recognize school districts and their leaders for taking bold and innovative steps to improve the lives of their students and their communities.

SHOP is an acronym for Showing How Opportunity Pays. Established in the 2014-15 school year, the program currently serves 38 students – 17 of whom are part of the school’s Life Skills Support program with various special needs and abilities.