We have all gazed into the little boxed-in glass store outside the main office admiring the numerous apparel options such as sweatshirts, pants, and shirts ranging in sizes and school colors. However, most students and teachers are unaware of how the store works, when they can buy items, or even what is offered.

Before the store existed, a cart rolled around the school. Later on, however, the storefront was envisioned and brought to life by 1978 Essex High School graduate, Jeff Green. As the longtime boosters president, Green worked to create a retail space that could be run by students with adult supervision from the sports program. As a volunteer, Green dedicated a lot of time and energy to creating merchandise options that could be easily accessed by anyone whenever they wanted. 

“It sounds like an easy process, but I worked on that for probably five years. It was hard to get the approval and originally there wasn’t enough room,” Green shared.

Despite the initial struggles the result is just what he had hoped for: a store with clear glass walls where anyone can see the EHS merchandise. It used to be open seasonally, as the store was making the most profit when the gym was being utilized during fall and winter sports. Unfortunately, over the past couple of years it has been closed due to COVID restrictions and has yet to get back to its usual flow of business. 

Fortunately, there is an online store that anyone can find on the EHS website all year round no matter the season or time of day. While it is not updated as much as the physical store, the online store offers a variety of sweatshirts, pants, shirts, and even accessories such as hats and scarves in various sizes that anyone can purchase with the click of a button. Through the online store, you can get next-day pickup on weekdays from 8:00-4:30 pm at Sports Central, in Essex Junction.

“Soon it’s going to be open on a regular basis. We’re open at all basketball games. And we’ll be open hopefully, a couple times each month, and then the week before Thanksgiving and the week before Christmas,” Green said.  Furthermore they are working to get it open at least twice a month during the school year, so stay tuned for opening dates!

The store accepts cash or checks as payment, but if you happen to catch him, Mr. Green can often take credit cards too. There has been talk of expanding into accepting payment forms such as Apple Pay, Venmo, or Cash App.

“The store is a boosters organization, so all of the money goes to boosters and they make donations to all types of curricular programs,” says Assistant Principal, Jeff Goodrich. 

The boosters program works to support and donate funds to the athletic department. In recent years, funds have helped with transportation, uniforms, paying for coaching clinics, and much more.“So in a sense, the money students spend in the store gets back to most of them one way or another,”Goodrich explains.

The store’s current items include the newly added Hornet Pride T-Shirt. The shirt, designed by our very own art teacher, Mrs. Schmidt, displays a hornet made up of rainbow colors to represent the LGBTQ+ community. The shirt is not yet offered on the online store, but anyone can purchase it at the store in the main lobby. 

Mr. Green is looking for anyone who has ideas for design such as the Hornet Pride T-Shirt. He has been working with EHS art teacher, Mrs. Bradshaw, to find and work with students to create more designs that can then be sold in the store. If you or anyone you know would be interested in working with him to create new designs and apparel options you can reach out to him at  [email protected].

If you wish to purchase anything from the EHS store check in with the main office staff, or Mr. Green and they will help you.

Anyone can check the store out during most indoor sporting events or consider checking it out online: https://ehs-boosters.com/ehs_boosters/shop/home.