The husband and I have become pretty big on volunteerism, domating to causes, and donating stuff we don’t need/use to someone who does have a need. I finally got the urge to clean out one of the two closets my clothes occupy and rid myself of some career clothing that I no longer wear – I’ve not been in a corporate environment where I need business casual for two years now. Two closets, you ask? Yes. That’s what happens when you move from a new apartment with a GINORMOUS walk-in closet and into a newish house that was built from design plans from the 1970’s. The closet space here is SEVERELY lacking, so I ended up with two closets full of clothes instead of just one big one. Besides, I am going to the New York Sheep & Wool Festival and need more space for yarn. Yes, yarn trumps clothes.
Anyway, I go through the spare closet of items I don’t wear often and realize there are a LOT of pretty basic items that are still in good condition, current as far as style (mostly basic stuff – black pants, solid color button-down shirts), and I really can’t bear to think of throwing a bag of very wearable, nice clothes into one of those clothing donation bins. So, I call up the local community services organization and they point me to Wings for Success. Wings turns out to be a non-profit organization that helps women returning to the workplace after some sort of hardship (addiction, domestic violence, crime, homelessness, etc). I called, made an appointment to drop off clothes, and selected two huge paper shopping bags (the ones you get when Old Navy is having a sale and you actually attempt to buy out the whole store in one go) of the nicest items to bring with me. When I arrived, I was given a tour of the space which is really impressive. Volunteers do most of the work, dressing new clients and sending them home with a week or two worth of clothes. There’s a whole room dedicated to handbags. Clearly, these gals know what they’re doing.
After seeing what they do, and understanding just how important it is to the women in our community, I felt the need to post something about it and spread the word. If you live in Southeastern Pennsylvania and have a closet of career clothes to weed through, please think of Wings for Success before you throw out those clothes. The best way to contact them is via phone, and the number is on their website.