Students’ Internship Raises Money For Cause

Huntington High School seniors Katherine Russak, far left, and Bridgette Starr, far right, hold up t-shirts they’ve designed during their internship with Interthread Embroidery. Maryann DeSimone, center, is the owner of Interthread Embroidery. Long Islander News photo/Janee Law

By Janee Law
jlaw@longislandergroup.com

Huntington High School seniors are taking their passion for fashion to a new level, using their internship with Interthread Embroidery, as a means to raise funds for Pink Aid, a Westport, Connecticut based nonprofit that helps women who are battling, or who have survived, breast cancer.

Katherine Russak and Bridgette Starr, both 17 and Huntington residents, began the internship in September and will continue throughout the current school year until June, said Maryann DeSimone, owner of Interthread Embroidery.

Interthread Embroidery has been in business since 1996 and customizes shirts, sweaters, jackets, hats, scarves, blankets, beach towels and bags.

DeSimone said this was the first year the business offered an internship program for students, focuses on teaching what goes into running a business, creating designs for clothing, how to work the machines and market a project.

“My vision of the internship program is to work with a school every year and have the interns create something that’s Huntington based to provide for the community,” DeSimone said. “I believe in giving back to the community and so they decided to contribute to Pink Aid.”

The duo recently began selling the shirts and will continue to do so until the end of the internship in June, where a portion of proceeds will be donated to Pink Aid, DeSimone said.

Creating short sleeve and long sleeve t-shirts, the crafty designs feature the words “Huntington Long Island, NY, est. 1653.”

Both Russak and Starr work at the 11 Lake Place location in Huntington once or twice a week for a total of three hours a week.

They took the internship opportunity to gain insight into the fashion industry and to get exposure on what it’s like running a business.

Starr said she’s learned how to use the embroidery machine, computer programing and ways to market products.

“I feel like it’s a very good experience and I learned a lot from it,” Starr said. “It’s something I look forward to coming here every week, learning new things and expanding my horizons and becoming more knowledgeable.”

Russak said she also learned a lot from a business standpoint and her goal for the remainder of the internship is to learn more about businesses as a whole and sell a lot of the shirts to benefit the charity.

“It’s been a really exciting process,” she added. “It’s fun to put our efforts into making the shirts and knowing that it will go to a great cause.”