Neon yellow Nike running shoes. A dark blue and white plaid button-up shirt. Checkered brown Vans. A gray cable knit sweater, overall jean dress, and a simple white t-shirt piled in the arms of students who browse donated clothes, folded on tables and hanging on clothing racks, labeled “$5 rack,” “$4 jeans,” and “$3 kids shirts.”
This pop-up thrift store, hosted in Room 143, is part of CommuniCare Club’s mission statement to grant money to organizations providing “services to people facing addictions” in the hopes to “understand the root causes of addiction and bring humanization to the topic.” It will run for the rest of the week, with all of the proceeds donated to a local non-profit focused on addiction recovery.
“We’ve been meeting all year talking about drug addiction,” Director of Faith Programs and Campus Ministry Ms. Sarah Maher said. “And now we get to meet nonprofits and help folks who are either overcoming addiction or preventative measures.”
In the past, the club raised money almost entirely through Café Justo, but this year they have begun to branch out, fundraising through Candy Grams and now a pop-up thrift store.
They brainstormed the idea for a pop-up thrift store — which was done once three years ago by the AAPI affinity group — and for the last month have been collecting “bags and bags” of clothing donations, according to Ms. Maher, which are then sorted, packed up, and folded so that people can come in and easily find what they’re looking for.
Ms. Maher, staff adviser for the club, said that any money they raise will be matched by the Schnitzer Foundation. Five nonprofits will be interviewed over the next two to three weeks and they will then decide around the end of March which to donate to, looking for criteria such as how well they fit the club’s mission statement.
“We will try to keep it open until we have to close, [if] people want to keep shopping,” Ms. Maher said. “So even if we’re done raising money for CommuniCare, we can give those funds to Mwangaza College, we can help with other organizations, too.”