Day in the Life

Right now is busy season, which is why we're always hitting you up! We wanted you to know that we're putting those donations to work— here's how we spent this first Thursday in November.

--We processed five new kids from Collins and Bentley. While our primary effort is focused on running closets at all SPS schools, we still have kids who require more/different sizes/different items, and addressing specific needs is still part of our regular work. We visited our Storehouse at First Church to gather what we already have for these kids, and tomorrow we will shop for the rest.

--Open Closet Thursday at Salem High! We restocked our SHS closet with more socks, tampons, pads, and winter coats, organizing them before running our weekly Open Closet during SHS's two lunch periods. Quite a few kids came in this week; we're almost out of PJ pants. Quite a few coats were taken, plus all the socks we brought in this morning, and leggings. We also had requests for hoodies. Big thanks to our SHS contact John St. Onge, who reorganized the room for maximum functionality.

--We also restocked the closet at Collins Middle School, adding a bunch of PJ pants to the shelves as well as shampoo, conditioner, soap, and period products.

--We went coat shopping, thanks to your donations, and made coat deliveries to Bentley, the ECC, SHS, and Collins. We have more deliveries to make tomorrow to Carlton and Horace Mann.

--We processed several Winter Warmup financial donations as well as a request from a generous donor for a coat assignment, which conveniently coincided with an incoming coat request from New Liberty, one of Salem's alternative high schools.

--A player on one of Salem High's teams needed sneakers asap; working with school staff, we made it happen in time for the game.

--A regular supporter donated four bags of gently used clothing, which we retrieved from their home and sorted for distribution to SHS and the Storehouse.

--We coordinated dropoff of gorgeous knitted winter wear from a lovely group of regular supporters, the Thread and Needle Society. Member Mary-Elizabeth Russell sends her knitting all the way up to us from South Carolina!

--We dropped off giving cards to First Church, who not only host our Storehouse but include us as part of their Holiday Outreach program. This year, they'll be gathering clothes for our closets. 

We are so grateful to our donors and school partners, who make this all possible!