Detroit News vintage tee worn by Drew Barrymore brings in $70K for charity

Score a Detroit News T-shirt below

Sarah Rahal
The Detroit News

Detroit — With a major boost from a Hollywood star, fans of The Detroit News — and fashion — helped raise over $70,000 for the Rosa L. Parks Scholarship Foundation.

Order your shirts at detne.ws/vintagetee.

Multi-hyphenate super-celeb Drew Barrymore styled herself for the cover shot of August's InStyle magazine, and chose a Detroit News vintage T-shirt to accent her casual look. 

The cover photo of InStyle's "Bada-- Women" issue shows the actor, director, producer and author in the shirt reading "The Detroit News. The first good news of the day." 

Barrymore told us later that she liked the "good news" concept and agreed to promote the shirt on her Instagram since all proceeds would go to the Detroit-based charity that provides college scholarships to incoming freshmen who show a need and a dedication to the Civil Right's icons values.

The Detroit News and Detroit Public Schools founded the charity in 1980. 

In total, the T-shirt sales brought in $70,709 for the foundation over the course of a few weeks. 

The pro will fund internships to allow more students the opportunity of achieving newsroom experience during their studies, said Kim Trent, the president of the foundation.

"With newsrooms downsizing and many being unpaid internships, it only benefits students who are financially stable. It is much more difficult for others who don’t have financial support from family and through this scholarship, we are grateful to facilitate these new opportunities," Trent said. "You can’t overstate the importance of internship experience in our field, at a time when journalism is so important, and to give more students that opportunity is exciting to see."

Trent, who also received the Rosa Parks Scholarship in 1987, said it allowed her to have four internships while attending Wayne State University in Detroit, three of which she spent at The Detroit News.

"It was such an amazing opportunity for me at a very young age to join a major newsroom," Trent said. "I also love the contrast that Drew Barrymore, a fun-loving star's favorite T-shirt, that most people didn't think would have much importance, will have a long-lasting impact on lots of wannabe journalists."

Feeling like you missed out? You can still buy the red shirt, or a gray or black one, at our Detroit News store.

A portion of these sales will go to Detroit News charities, including the Rosa L. Parks Scholarship Foundation and Sparky Anderson's CATCH Charity for Children, which helps improves the quality of life for pediatric patients and their families at Children's Hospital of Michigan and Henry Ford Hospital.

"We want to thank all the fans of The News — and Drew Barrymore — for supporting this effort," said Detroit News Editor and Publisher Gary Miles. "The courageous efforts of Rosa Parks are very much in our thoughts these days, and these proceeds will help many courageous young people fulfill their dreams."