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    New website!

    Ok, it took a little longer than we anticipated, and there's a little work left to be done, but welcome to our new website! We've moved to Shopify for a more robust e-commerce solution.

    Still a few screws to tighten, primarily getting CHARGE, "Mafia Gear," mystery shirts, and the shirt archive back online but we expect that all to be squared away in the next day or two.

    For those who have asked, YES, we will be extending the current campaigns a few days to make up for the lost sales time. We'll still ensure every beneficiary gets the opportunity we promised them.

    Poke around, have a look, and let us know what you think!

    #RisenFromRust

    The 26 Shirts crew has felt the pull for a long time to do something new, something outside the world of sports, that focuses solely on this awesome region we’re lucky enough to call home.

    It begins today with CHARGE, a new line that celebrates the new beginning underway in Buffalo. What was once thought of as a dated and dying city has now become a city on the rise with a bright future ahead of us... a future that we all as individuals get to play a role in.

    Every purchase of a CHARGE product helps support the Buffalo City Mission, an organization that helps position people who are down on their luck with their own new beginning. We're excited to begin this relationship with the Mission as they, too, look toward their own new beginning. They are right now in the middle of a capital campaign to raise funds for a new Community Center that will replace their current facility on East Tupper.

    So go ahead, check out CHARGEBFLO.COM and let us know your thoughts! Leave a comment below or feel free to email us directly: info@youandwho.com.

    Expect more from CHARGE later this year with a dedicated site that is more than just shirts, mugs and flags, but a true celebration of what it means to have #RisenFromRust.

    Jordan Berkhoudt

    Jordan Berkhoudt is in consistent and immense pain, and one of the few times that Shelli Berkhoudt manages a laugh is under the absurdity of it all.

    Here's her son, who's gone from a freshman invited to train with the Hamburg High School varsity volleyball team to a 16-year-old unable to go to school or even get out of his wheelchair on account of the pain.

    What that pain is, doctors just can't sort.

    "Jordan has seen dozens of doctors, and they all say something different," Shelli says, as lightheartedly as you could hope. "We're not sure which one of these doctors knows what they are talking about."

    What the Berkhoudts know is that Jordan has Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos, something a lot of athletes have that means the connect tissue in your body doesn't work correctly. For those athletes, that means rare ability. For Jordan, who has an extreme case, it also means constant pain.

    He's also been diagnosed with Lyme Disease, which makes the doctors' task more difficult since Lyme can mimic other diseases.

    Oh, and that Lyme has come with an infection called Bartonella.

    "He doesn't have a loss of muscle tone, he just can't stand," Shelli says. "If he goes to stand, and he hasn't been able to try in months, the pain will knock him off his feet. He had visiting nurses for his PT for a while, but he's in so much pain that if he'd ever try... He's got a bubble of spinal fluid in his spine. Some people have and it means nothing, and others do and it means something."

    The Berkhoudts are hopeful it carries some meaning, but the rare and uncooperative diagnoses have led to a load of travel to see specialists. Husband Dave, once Jordan's coach, has quit work. The Hamburg family is racking up costs.

    A portion of the proceeds from every 26 Shirts Volume 5, Shirt 12 design "Lovin' It" goes to help Jordan and his family with costs associated with his care.

    "All of the trips are out of pocket and a lot of time the doctors are out of network," Shelli says. "The Lyme doctor wasn't covered at all. We're averaging $20,000 a year in medical bills and we had to put a lift in our house to get him upstairs."

    Getting on a plane is "horrible," but driving is not an option. It's crushing, because this kid could play: volleyball, hockey, baseball... now it's video games like Overwatch and Fortnite. And Jordan loves that, but the costs are stopping that, too.

    "He's trying to save some money to start a gaming channel and get all that equipment," Shelli said."A lot of his friends are online, video gaming, and texting. He doesn't leave the house except for medical appointments. All his friends are turning 16 and learning to drive. He's angry, and the pain takes your mind places where you don't want to go. He doesn't think it'll get better."

    "He was a smart athlete and he deserves the chance to try and get better again, even if it's not sports. It could just be going back to school. It's amazing how much this has changed our lives."

    Ben Cambria

    Ben Cambria is an outgoing, rap loving, college junior who loves to hang out with his blue-nosed pitbull, travel, play soccer, and is working towards graduating from the University of Albany, where he's an event coordinator at his fraternity.

    A lot of those loves became more difficult or even close to impossible when he was diagnosed with ALS in July 2016.

    "It's a devastating diagnosis," said Ben's mother, Becky Cambria. "There are stages that you go through, the first being denial. He wants to continue doing what he wants to do, he just has to do it differently. ... But he never complains. We've had to modify our home. Not sure if we're going to move, or put an addition on, so we're feeling our way right now."

    Ben and his twin brother are the middle children of the six-kid Cambria family. He played soccer at St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute and Kenmore West, and began playing club soccer at the Albany before a diagnosis changed his life.

    "He played soccer in Albany a little bit but got injured," said Becky Cambria. "We really weren't connecting the dots. His freshman year he was having stiffness in his hands and feet, and he would go to the clinic people would say it's stress from the exams or school. And when we picked him up, I was like 'What the heck? This is more than stiffness.'"

    It was Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as Lou Gehrig's Disease.

    In ALS, both the upper motor neurons and the lower motor neurons degenerate or die, and stop sending messages to the muscles. Unable to function, the muscles gradually weaken, start to twitch (called fasciculations), and waste away (atrophy). Eventually, the brain loses its ability to initiate and control voluntary movements.

    Ben was fortunate enough to earn a trial of the first ALS drug trial in almost 20 years, his mother says, and this has him getting infusions every day for 2 weeks, followed by 2 weeks off before restarting the cycle. The treatment won't cure him, but could dramatically slow the disease's progression.

    "He's been getting the infusions since August," Becky Cambria said. "It's too early to tell if there have been any changes. Fifty percent of people living with ALS die in the first two years. Ninety-eight percent die because they refuse the trache.

    "We have a very strong faith life and our prayers are just that Ben is a beacon with this new drug and it will slow down this disease that he will accomplish what he wants to accomplish."

    An ALS diagnosis is a lot to handle, and life has handed the 19-year-old a lot: Handling a grueling disease with a challenging new treatment and the rigors of fighting for a degree.

    "He his good days and his bad days," Becky Cambria said. "Depression certainly plays a role with the diagnosis. Not being able to do things his peers can do easily can cause him to have very down days. Everybody just tries their best to be positive and encourage him that he can still do what he wants to do."

    A portion of the proceeds from every 26 Shirts Volume 5, Shirt 3 design "Laser Swords" goes to help Ben and his family combat ALS.

    Jack Caffery

    We've all read bumper stickers about pets saving lives, but four-year-old Jack Caffery's dog will actually be a superhero without the cape.

    Or with a cape, should the Caffery's want to dress up their Diabetic Alert Dog. We won't judge.

    Jack was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at age 3, but doesn't show symptoms when his blood sugar levels get too low or too high. That means his parents have to prick his finger up to 15 times a day and stay vigilant through the very dangerous overnight period.

    "You would never know that he could (have a very low level), and he's jumping off the couch like a normal 4-year-old and he should be passed out with a level like that," Jill says, "And he just keeps going. He's so resilient, and for as long as I can I'm happy to wear the burden and be his pancreas."

    Enter a Diabetic Alert Dog, a remarkably expensive but incredibly useful set of eyes, er, singular nose for the Cafferies. The dog is being trained now, getting swabbed samples of Jack's saliva when the youngster's levels are high or low as part of an 18-24 month process in indoctrinating the dog to Jack's body.

    Once prepared -- and running just over $30,000 including insurance -- the dog will sleep with Jack and help Mom and Dad make interventions that could thwart organ failure, nerve damage, amputation, and any other number of Type 1 Diabetes threats.

    "Having a Diabetic Alert Dog, they can detect the change up to 20 minutes before a device inside him. That can be life saving, especially in the middle of the night when things can change so quickly. It's very common for not only children but adults with type 1 diabetes to go to sleep and never wake up again."

    "The dog is never going to take away from his need for insulin, or our need to check him. He wears a glucose monitor and an insulin pump. Medical devices fail, and the dog could make a mistake, too, but the dog is going to give us another safety net, a set of eyes, nose, something to keep him safe, make sure he wakes up every morning and lives a full, healthy life."

    Here's the thing: Like many other kids, Jack's just pumped to get a dog! The Thomas the Tank Engine and sports loving preschooler is already thankful this holiday season.

    "He's really excited," Jill said. "I picked him up from religion yesterday and they were making this turkey with what they're thankful for. One of the things he put out there is he's thankful for his dog. We don't even have a dog!"

    Now through December 3rd, for every 26 Shirts Vol 5, Shirt 2 "Hausch Money" sold, a donation of up to $8 is made to the Caffery family to help offset the cost of their Diabetic Alert Dog.