The Power of Purple: Supporting unity, spreading positivity

In January 2021, two nurses in the Pediatric ICU at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital launched the Purple Initiative in response to an incident of racial insensitivity. Mya Johnson-Wheeler, B.S.N., R.N., and Becky Morgan, B.S.N., R.N., began inviting teammates to wear purple on the third Friday of each month as a show of support for diversity, equality and unity.

Since then, the initiative has spread well beyond the PICU, with team members across the main medical campus and ambulatory care sites donning purple on Fridays once a month.

Now, new materials are available to help team members show their support, with three Zoom backgrounds that can be downloaded here, here and here, plus purple t-shirts that can be ordered through April 23 from the online store at Underground Printing.

 More about the purple t-shirts:

• A portion of the proceeds from the shirts sold in the online store will be donated to the Center for Education of Women (CEW+).
• CEW+ empowers women and underserved individuals in the University of Michigan and surrounding communities by serving as an advocate and providing resources to help individuals reach their academic, financial, and professional potential.
• There is a shipping cost if ordering via the online store. The cost to ship one shirt is $6.95, but each additional shirt added to the order ships for $1—a great idea to reduce shipping is to organize a group order.
• The “UNITY” logo shirt in the online store was created by Johnson-Wheeler and Morgan – founders of the Purple Initiative.
• Please share the t-shirt store ordering link broadly! Orders can be placed through Sunday, April 23 and will ship on May 8.

Additional information about the Purple Initiative is provided in this Short Takes video.