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Allegheny Educational Systems and Bon Air Elementary Students

Bon Air Elementary Students Set Up Shop and Design/Print T-Shirts

A few months ago we were contacted by Melinda Kulick, the business, computer & information technology teacher at Burrell School District. Melinda was inquiring about the possibility of assisting her with an ambitious t-shirt printing project for their Summer Reading Challenge.

The goal was to help the students design and print their own shirts to wear at the kick-off event. The challenge came from the large number of shirts and limited amount of time to produce them. Thankfully this was one of those times where the stars aligned and we were scheduled to receive our new Roland VersaSTUDIO BT-12 Direct-to-Garment demo printer about a week from Melinda’s initial request.

We anxiously awaited the printer’s arrival and scheduled a visit with Melinda to bring in the demo and train her and a few other teachers within 24 hours of the printers delivery. The short turn-around left us with little time to learn this new printer ourselves and then train someone with no previous printing experience. The BT-12 was as easy to learn and operate as promised and both we and then Melinda were producing beautiful imprints in no time.

We left Melinda with the BT-12 Direct-to-Garment Printer, HB-12 Desktop Finisher, an additional Cassette Tray, and a heat press. Melinda and her students spent the next two weeks working together to print t-shirts for every student at the elementary school – all 565 of them. The BT-12 turned out to be quite the little workhorse and churned out t-shirts flawlessly time and again for each class. Melinda and her students were thrilled with the results and are hoping to gain funding to purchase a printer and start a classroom-run business.

The project was so successful that word spread and Roland recommended the story to Screen Printing Magazine – which featured Melinda and her students in their August issue. You can read the article here: https://www.screenweb.com/article/elementary-students-get-lesson-dtg-printing

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