Amanda Hammonds wears her T-shirt design that has raised over $9000 for flood victims.
London Taylor/The Lion's Roar

Center of Student Excellence advisor, Amanda Hammonds, helped flood victims by using her creativity.

Hammonds designed a T-shirt that aids people impacted by the flood. She shared her story of how the T-shirt came to be.

“The design first came to me in a dream on the night of August 15, and I took action to it the very next day,” said Hammonds.

After she drew out her design, she posted it on Facebook and gained interest from a printing company.

“My original intention of it started off as just a design,” said Hammonds. “It was shared through Facebook and people suggested that it should be a shirt. I was eventually contacted by Ashley Baham from Gonzales, who contacted Faux Pas Prints in Metairie about turning the design into a shirt. They were on board with the idea and made it happen.”

The T-shirt has the Louisiana state symbol with the words, “Come hell or high water, we are Louisiana strong.”

“I made sure everything was symbolic,” said Hammonds. “I used distressed font and words, meaning we will prevail.”

So far, the shirts have raised over $9,000 using two websites, geauxla.org and booster.com, as well as the Hot August Night event. All proceeds go to charities, local schools, students and teachers that were impacted by the flood.

Hammonds takes pride in the success of her T-shirts, design and the community’s help.

The importance behind the shirts stemmed from Hammond’s need to give back to those affected by the flooding.

“Helping people every day is important,” said Hammonds. “It is a way to give back and use creativity to truly help somebody. It’s not just a shirt to wear or an image on Facebook.”

Hammonds shared her feelings about the effects of the flood and the actions people took to helping because of it.

“It is inevitable that bad things are going to happen in life, but it is so refreshing to see no matter how hard we get pushed down, we help each other back up,” said Hammonds. “I feel sad that this happened, but it’s one of the things that make people come together as a community.”

Although Hammonds was not impacted by the flood, she felt helpless that she could not help the victims due to road closures. She is not only a CSE advisor, but is also a SE 101 advisor for students majoring in communication, music, art and foreign language. Hammonds empathizes with student flood victims because she understands what it’s like to go to school after a natural disaster.

“I can’t imagine what they are going through,” said Hammonds. “We’ve all been through the same thing, but were affected differently.”

To purchase a T-shirt, please visit geauxla.org. To see the T-shirt design, please visit the Facebook page Artful Happiness or etsy.com/shop/artfulhappiness.

An alternate color to Amanda Hammonds T-shirt design for flood victims.
London Taylor/The Lion's Roar