New Caltech Merchandise to Raise Funds for Community Fire Relief
Like many things that happen at Caltech, it started as a germ of an idea.
In the week following the Eaton fire, which swept through the Altadena and Pasadena communities surrounding Caltech, graduate students Zachary Ahmad and Wes Patel were working together in the lab of Katherine Faber, the Simon Ramo Professor of Materials Science. Ahmad was helping Patel prepare for his candidacy exam when Patel noticed one of their other lab mates had an interesting coffee mug decorated with images representing her undergraduate alma mater.
"I thought it would be pretty cool if we could get a design like that for Caltech," Patel says. "And we could use the proceeds to support the fire victims who are trying to recover and get back on their feet. At the top of my mind was, how many staff and faculty in our community had lost their homes or were displaced? We wanted to do what we could to help, even though it might not be giving people their houses back."
While Patel continued preparing for his candidacy exam, Ahmad took the idea and ran with it. He researched and contacted the artist who designed the artwork on the mug, Julia Gash, and then sought help from the Institute.
"I didn't know who to reach out to," Ahmad says. "But I figured if I contacted someone from the Caltech Store, they might have some idea how to make this happen." He connected with Caltech Store manager Karyn Seixas, who was more than excited to support the effort.
"When Zac emailed me, I was typing my response seconds after reading his message: Yes, let's do this!" Seixas says she had been hoping to find some way to give back to the community since the Hameetman Center—the building that hosts the Caltech Store—had served as a gathering place after the LA fires.
"The day we opened back up, probably about 10 percent of the folks who came into the store had either lost their homes or been displaced because of smoke damage or things like that," Seixas says. "People didn't really know what to do, where to go, or how to get help at that point. They came in to get chargers or new devices just to be able to begin communicating." For several weeks after the fires, the Caltech Postdoctoral Association and Graduate Student Council also ran a donation center in Hameetman providing clothing, food, and other supplies for fire victims.
Serendipitously, artist Julia Gash was already working with a licensee that had an existing contract with the Caltech Store. Together, Ahmad and Seixas commissioned a custom Caltech art piece by Gash, who is known for her hand-drawn collages that highlight cities or universities. Ahmad and Seixas collaborated on selecting icons to be included in the art piece, which would then be printed on merchandise to sell in the Caltech Store with 50% of all proceeds going directly to the Caltech and JPL Disaster Relief Fund.
"We wanted to include things that represented both Pasadena and Caltech," Seixas says. "You'll notice there are parrots, a rose, a turtle, the San Gabriel Mountains, palm trees, some of the unique buildings we have on campus."
"These things are so Caltech," Ahmad says, "Like the Beckman Auditorium and the Fleming Cannon. You've got the ‘old Caltech' with the Beckman Institute, and the ‘new Caltech' with the Resnick Sustainability Center."
The art piece features symbols representing each of Caltech's academic divisions, including a double-helix DNA for Biology and Biological Engineering, a beaker for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, a circuit board and gears for Engineering and Applied Science, a pickaxe and compass for Geological and Planetary Sciences, a bar graph and globe for Humanities and Social Sciences, and the mass–energy equivalence equation (E=MC2) for Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy. Also included are the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's "vintage" logo, the Caltech Athletics beaver logo, the Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Caltech Hall, a Caltech pennant, the Institute's torch icon, a mortarboard cap, a diploma, a stack of books, a person on a bike, several stars, and a Red Door Cafe cup.
"Not only is this a really cool piece of artwork," Ahmad says, "but the artist knew exactly what it was for. She knew it would support contributions to the fire relief fund, so she completed it in record time and put her heart into it. I hope this will be really beneficial to keeping the relief fund alive and not just relying on external donors."
Ahmad says the experience of bringing this vision to life also gave him a deeper appreciation of the opportunities a small, interconnected community like Caltech can provide.
"As a graduate student, sometimes I have ideas that are quickly abandoned because I just don't know the process to make them a reality," Ahmad says. "This time, however, I decided to trust that the people at Caltech would fill the gaps of my knowledge. There isn't always a ‘proper channel' to get something like this done, but this has shown me that sometimes we have to create our own channel. I'd love to encourage students across campus to connect with the people that work here to create things that can uplift the community."
The new line of merchandise at the Caltech Store includes a drawstring bag, a tote bag, a mug, a water bottle, a keychain strap, a lanyard, a cell phone card holder, and an ornament, all featuring the artwork by Gash. Fifty percent of proceeds will support Institute community members impacted by the LA fires via the Caltech and JPL Disaster Relief Fund.
