‘A conversation piece’

At least 70,000 shirts with the QR code have been sold and shipped across the country, likely helping get people to register to vote, Deitsch said.

“That shirt was our staple,” Lemy said. “It was a conversation piece every place we went. [It was about ] youth empowerment and civic engagement.”

Deitsch, Lemy’s friend and a fellow Douglas graduate, called his shirt design “revolutionary.”

Such merchandise sells through the group’s website, marchforourlives.com. Items include a tote bag or bandana, each for about $20, or a onesie for newborns for about $20. On the higher end, hoodies sell for about $45.

Proceeds have gone toward helping the group’s initiatives. When the March for Our Lives announced its Road to Change summer bus tour, donations from across the country to their cause helped pay for their hotel stays along the way and to pay a bus company.

Lemy’s inspiration for change through art actually came weeks before the Parkland shooting. He didn’t like what he saw on television about violence in the Middle East.

The conflicts troubled him, specifically the ones that displaced refugees in Syria.

So he worked with Deitsch to design a T-shirt with bombers and flowers, meant to juxtapose war and peace. The profits were intended to go to companies that helped people on the ground with loans to start their own businesses.

“We couldn’t really let it happen without saying anything,” Lemy said. “There’s an insane amount of violence overseas. We wanted to use our skills ... to change the world.”

One of Lemy’s best friends, Joaquin Oliver, a Douglas senior, had promised to help model the shirts.

Then the Parkland shooting happened. “The world gave us a different hand,” Deitsch said.

Classes at FAU let out early on Feb. 14, so Lemy headed with a friend over to the beach in Boca Raton. They were settling in when he got the first text: “Shots fired at Douglas.”

That’s not possible, he thought. But the texts kept coming and video from inside the school was being posted on social media.

Lemy frantically texted people he still knew at the school, and “Joaquin was the only person who never texted me back,” he said.

Deitsch said, “Our lives changed the day we went to Joaquin’s funeral.”

Lemy has been working on merchandise for the next initiative, Mayors for Our Lives, which encourages mayors to ensure there is voter registration in high schools. The main message: Young people can make a difference.

“Everyone should be involved,” he said. “We’re using art to do that.”