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Need clothes? Have too many clothes? The Clothing Closet is just for you! Many students are not aware that we have a Clothing Closet here at GHS. The Clothing Closet is run by the SUN Office and was started 4 years ago.
The SUN Clothing Closet is located near the SUN Office and provides clothing, personal hygiene items, school supplies, and other accessories. The Closet is available to anyone in need and isn’t restricted to certain income levels or applications. Visiting the Clothing Closet requires a staff member to accompany a student. The student can pick out anything he or she needs and it’s free to him or her.
“Anyone at Gresham High School has access to it, as long as they talk to a counselor, SUN staff, or teacher,” said SUN Coordinator, Anne Le.
Items in the Closet come through donations from anyone able to give. Items can be new or used. However, the only items that are required to be new are undergarments. The items are checked in to make sure they are not tarnished, they have no holes, and are quality items that students can still use and wear. Some items donated that are for children are sent over to the Child Development Center.
After the clothing is checked, the Functional Life Skills (FLS) class gets involved. From washing to drying to hanging up the clean clothes, the FLS class assists one day week and more often if they have time.
“In our Functional Life Skills (FLS) classroom we help by washing the clothes that are donated before they get put out in the Clothing Closet,” FLS EA Pam Bachand continued, “so we wash them in the Home Ec room and then we take them upstairs to the Clothing Closet. Then if we can, we also will hang some of the new ones if there is room for more clothes, we’ll hang more clothes out for kids to choose them,” said Bachand.
The SUN Program wants to keep increasing the awareness that the Clothing Closet exists and has more than just clothes. That should create more students taking advantage of such a great resource.
Madison Hartney is an Americorp member working through Metropolitan Family Services at Gresham High with the SUN Program. She believes that staff is aware of the Closet but would like to see a greater awareness of the Closet amongst the student population.
“Any student, any time, can come up and go. I feel like if students knew they had that resource, it would be a really good thing. They would be able to utilize the Clothing Closet,” said Hartney.
Keep in mind that if spring closet cleaning is on the agenda, consider donating to the Clothing Closet. If you are a GHS student and in need of something, stop in at the Clothing Closet by way of the SUN Office, and take advantage of what the Closet has to offer.
