Donating clothing in My Pocono areA (Scranton, Taylor: sales, buying, income)

[mr.magoo]

and Christmas Cards...

[Gerania]

Originally Posted by theatergypsy

Good thought, G, but since the OP specifically asked for a church in "My Pocono area", I don't think Wilkes-Barre will cut it.


I do think however, that feeding and clothing go hand in hand and sadly, the strongly-felt need is being filled by the soup kitchen here in our Wyoming Valley.

I missed that part.

[fisheye]

Originally Posted by Gerania

I missed that part.

The Salvation Army is the closest I get to a church without a full structural inspection!

[Gerania]

You or the church?

I remembered that my niece told me that she was taking the clothing to Hazleton. Not that that helps...

[talloolla]

Thank you again to everyone who weighed in on my dilemma of where to donate clothing. I wanted to give you an update on what I finally decided to do. I did spend one whole day and calling all the churches that I could find listed in Goldsboro Mount Pocono in Newfoundland to find a church that would except clothing . I even called the RSVP retired community for volunteer personnel to see if they had a suggestion for a clothes closet. I did find one church the Community Church on the way to Mount Pocono that excepted children's clothing only. I also called the Red Cross to see if there was a recent fire or a displaced family somewhere that could at least use the clothing and some of my home articles.

Believe it or not there was not one church one organization that would except my clothing as a drop off so I did take it to the Salvation Army in Mount Pocono but I was disappointed to find that so many organizations were not able or willing to except donations. I don't want to give the impression that my clothes or anything special that we are relocating down south so I had good shoes good coats for cold-weather sweaters that I won't be using I think it's a pity that there is no place other than the Salvation Army to go to when a family needs essentials.

[theatergypsy]

Talloola, you did a good thing. Since the SA is a church and does have a congregation that attends services, they often have insight into who needs housing, clothing, etc. and they are ready to give to those people what they need.

The reason most of the main stream churches don't have clothing drives on an on-going basis is because it requires volunteers to sort, size, and man the site where the clothes will be distributed. Not every church has such a volunteer base. Gone are the days when the ladies who were mostly SAHM met to make pierogi or doughnuts or Welsh cookies for sale or to manage a Rummage (some call it White Elephant) sale to help fund church projects. Economics dictates that the ladies are working outside the home and just don't have the resources to staff the fund-raisers.

I don't belong to the SA, nor do I know anyone who does. I do know, from my late step-Father, what good they did for the troops during WWII so I respect them for that.

[jtab4994]

Most of the difficulty is probably getting volunteers to sort through clothing, checking the sizes and throwing out the stuff that's no good. Then store the clothing while another set of volunteers finds people to donate to. And the church would also have to advertise that they take clothing. It's a lot of infrastructure to support when the Salvation Army already does all that and everyone knows about it.

[Gerania]

Originally Posted by talloolla

Thank you again to everyone who weighed in on my dilemma of where to donate clothing. I wanted to give you an update on what I finally decided to do. I did spend one whole day and calling all the churches that I could find listed in Goldsboro Mount Pocono in Newfoundland to find a church that would except clothing . I even called the RSVP retired community for volunteer personnel to see if they had a suggestion for a clothes closet. I did find one church the Community Church on the way to Mount Pocono that excepted children's clothing only. I also called the Red Cross to see if there was a recent fire or a displaced family somewhere that could at least use the clothing and some of my home articles.

Believe it or not there was not one church one organization that would except my clothing as a drop off so I did take it to the Salvation Army in Mount Pocono but I was disappointed to find that so many organizations were not able or willing to except donations. I don't want to give the impression that my clothes or anything special that we are relocating down south so I had good shoes good coats for cold-weather sweaters that I won't be using I think it's a pity that there is no place other than the Salvation Army to go to when a family needs essentials.

You donated your good, warm clothing, and someone will benefit. Imagine that someone goes to the SA store, and finds a hat, scarf, sweater, coat, boots that will keep them warm.

I've donated a lot of things in the last five years: Carhartt, North Face, LL Bean. Hopefully someone found them.

[fisheye]

Originally Posted by Gerania

You donated your good, warm clothing, and someone will benefit. Imagine that someone goes to the SA store, and finds a hat, scarf, sweater, coat, boots that will keep them warm.

I've donated a lot of things in the last five years: Carhartt, North Face, LL Bean. Hopefully someone found them.

Not LL Bean! Don't you just have to return them and they will give you new ones? That's my wife's favorite store. I am more of a Walmart or when I really want to impress; JC Penny.

[jtab4994]

Originally Posted by fisheye

Not LL Bean! Don't you just have to return them and they will give you new ones?

LL Bean had to stop doing guaranteed lifetime no-questions-asked exchanges, some time ago, because too many people were buying their stuff at Sally's and garage sales and exchanging it for brand new merchandise. Now you have to have a receipt.