Irish Italian Fest set for March 17 - St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic ...

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THE NEWS ACCORDING TO ST. THOMAS
Loftus featured in Forbes Magazine as “College football’s biggest entrepreneur.”
Staff report
Jared Loftus’s T-shirt
design business was recently
featured in Forbes
Magazine as “College
football’s biggest entrepreneur.”
Jared is a USM graduate
and son of Jo Loftus
and James Loftus, whose
life is celebrated each
spring at St. Thomas with
the James Loftus Crawfish
Boil.
While at USM Jared
sold t-shirts and other
items from his backpack
in order to raise funds to run for student body president. He noticed a
pattern of most students asking for custom designs. Graduating with
degrees in International Business, a Bachelor of Science and Spanish
minor, he moved to Baton Rouge and opened a custom T-shirt design
shop close to LSU’s Tiger Stadium and named it Tiger District.
“I had no experience in retail and no money,” he wrote on Linked In,
a social media site for business, “but I felt like I had a good idea. What
started off as selling bootleg t-shirts before football games grew into a
3000 square foot store right outside the gates of LSU.”
LSU football fans couldn’t get enough of his merchandise. Two
years later he doubled his square footage. Last year he sold the store
to concentrate on a wider market with online sales.
Now with a staff of 12 he sells 1500-2000 orders a week nationwide
through his College District virtual shops. This past football season
sales approached $1 million. Sales spike when a team wins. Jared says
he no longer has to watch a game to know which team came out on top.
He simply checks his weekly sales. LSU and Alabama are the top sellers.
He plans to set up an Eagle District for USM fans.
Following the success of a Honey Badger T-shirt honoring LSU’s
cornerback, Tyrann Mathieu, Jared plans to use for his business model
the “crowd-sourced design” method where fans upload and vote on favorite
t-shirt designs. This year he is expanding his success with football
to college basketball and eventually plans to tap into professional
leagues.
Jared is a multi-tasker when it comes to entrepreneurship. He started
the Taco de Paco truck (featured on the Cooking Channel) and considers
himself the Chief Taco Evangelizer. Ninja Snowballs are trucks
selling snowballs. He offers other entrepreneurs working space through
EHQ–Entrepreneur Headquarters; and Socially Awkward, social media
consulting. And for fun he produces a monthly art show called Stabbed
in the Art.
To keep pace with his diverse interests check out CollegeDistrict.com
or look him up on Facebook.
CSA active on campus, at church and in the community
By Leighanne Lockhart
It is nearing mid-semester, and the Catholic Student Association has
already made some impactful impressions at Southern Miss and in the
Hattiesburg community.
The Leadership Team had their day-long retreat at the start of the semester
and planned a semester’s worth of exciting events, community
service opportunities, spiritual outreaches, and fellowship enhancing
activities for students this Spring.
Volunteers from CSA planned and held its annual retreat for the high
school students in the area who are going through Confirmation this
season. It lasted all day in the Student Center and included small group
sessions, group bonding games and activities and testimonials/motivational
talks by featured CSA members, James Hayden, Colleen
Reilly, and Evanne Flanders. The retreat closed with Reconciliation
and Mass.
“The high school students were really open to the experience,” said
retreat team co-chair Jody Balius. “I think both the retreaters and volunteers
benefitted from the spiritual renewal and reminder of our
faith’s roots.”
The CSA also hosted a group of Canadian students during the week
of Mardi Gras. They were welcomed with open arms and participated
in Mass and Dinner on Ash Wednesday in the new Student Center.
A group of our members participated in the CSA Statewide Retreat
the weekend of Feb. 24-26. Members who attended include Maria
Finch, Joey Tramuta, Rebecca Larkin, Evanne Flanders, Carmen
Wingerter, Erin Wingerter, Erika Calamari, Philip Geraci, Josie Cannon,
Emily DeVoe and Ashley Weaver.
“It was a fun and faith-filled weekend,” Finch said. “When we first
got there, you could tell we were all from separate universities, but by
the end of the weekend it was like we had all become one big family.”
In addition to these events, the CSA has held Praise and Worship
sessions, men’s and women’s bible studies, rosary making, and Valentine’s
Day card writing. The most recent community service excursion
was a trip to Alden Point retirement center, where students sang fun
classic songs to the home’s members.
The CSA has also been participating in intramurals every week. So
far, they have played volleyball, dodgeball, walleyball, bowling, and
soccer. CSA Athletics was the Co-Rec Dodgeball Champion, made it
to semi-finals in women’s dodgeball, won a round of women’s bowling,
and made it to the second round of playoffs in soccer. Other sports
coming up are sand volleyball, cornhole, inner tube basketball and
softball.
“Overall this has been the best competition and best participation
that our organization has ever experienced in intramurals,” Intramurals
co-chair Michelle Pontiff said.
Other activities in the works for this semester include a trip to Abbey
Youth Fest to represent our CSA, fundraisers for Relay for Life, a family
picnic, an 80’s style prom event, a benefit concert and a blood drive.
Member James Hayden said, “It has been a good year for CSA so
far, and I look forward to building a stronger community and continuing
bonding with everyone in our spiritual family.