Editor’s Note: This is the fourth of a five-part series that highlights various members of the Appalachian and Boone community.

Sitting around their New York City apartment, Graham Bunn and Hal Kivette tossed around ideas. They wanted to do something good for society.
Bunn, who appeared on the “The Bachelorette” in 2008 and graduated from Appalachian State University in 2003, and Kivette, who graduated in 2006, created 46NYC.

Both Bunn and Kivette were enrolled in the Walker College of Business and played on the men’s basketball team.

According to 46nyc.com, 46NYC is an effort to make a difference in the fight to improve the lives of children worldwide.

On the T-shirts, words and designs are printed to depict each charity.

“We are mainly a T-shirt brand,” Kivette said. “We raise money in T-shirt sales. We don’t ask anything [of a] charity. Charities reach out to us.”

Bunn and Kivette enlisted the help of friend John McGinn, a Boone resident and founder of The McGinn Company, a new media branding company, and came up with the idea to help six charities and causes that affect the world today.

The “46” represents the company’s goal of being “for six” various charities.

Forty-six is also the number of Bunn’s basketball jersey when he played at Appalachian and in Germany.

Currently, 46NYC focuses on education, disease, nutrition, poverty, abuse and birth defect awareness and prevention.

“Eventually, I see [46NYC] dropping the brand,” Bunn said. “I would liken it to the lucky number 7 for good luck, where [46] is synonymous with caring for others.”

The “46” also stands for the “A” and “B” on designs for certain campaigns, including the “Cur46le” campaign for awareness against diseases and cures.

In addition to “Cur46le,” the “Lov46le” campaign has teamed up with the International Justice Mission to help fight for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other violent oppression. The “Valu46le” campaign provides education for students. The “Remark46le” campaign is partnered with the Children’s Heart Project, an organization that arranges life-saving operations for children.

46NYC recently worked with Wine to Water, a local charity that builds wells and provides clean water in areas where no clean drinking water is available as part of “Achiev46le,” a campaign for nutrition.

The “En46le” campaign supports the Sunflower Children’s Foundation, a humanitarian aid organization that provides survival and development care for children around the world.

“We wanted to do something that didn’t leave anything out and [umbrellas] everything we could think of,” Bunn said.

Though it supports charities, 46NYC is a for-profit company. All profits are currently being invested into the company and all leftover profit goes to charity.

Kivette and Bunn credit their education at Appalachian as a main part of their success, Bunn said.

To find out more or to purchase a T-shirt for a cause, visit 46nyc.com.

46NYC strives to give people a way to be involved, Kivette said.

“One of the things it’s designed [for] is if a student or person has a cause you feel connected to, [then support that cause],” he said.

Story: MARY ELIZABETH ROBERTSON, Intern Lifestyles Reporter