We have planned Clothing Ministry Event Days at the Washingtonville Food Pantry
Our goal is to have more EVENT days this year and to help more people. We need additional hands to reach that goal. Preparing and sorting the clothing is time consuming, and moving the bins takes effort. Please think about joining us for ONE event a year!!
The Bethlehem Clothing Ministry began with a simple premise: if our little community had a surplus of clothing that we all shared, why couldn't we go a step further and share among our neighbors in need? One of our members, Sabrina Roe, had organized clothing trades in our church for years; she would collect the bags, size them and re-distribute to other folks in church and at her workplace. The needs grew and so did the bags of clothing. Eventually, Sabrina organized the clothing into a Rummage Sale Drive as both a service and as a fundraiser to further the work of the clothing ministry-and the response was unbelievable. Over the next two years, she organized 2-3 sales per year, and she connected with local group homes, the foster family network, several food pantry organizations to promote the exchange of clothing. This led to a fundraising concert to fund the construction of a clothing collection drop-off shed on campus at Bethlehem. Soon we were sending clothing to other area churches for coat drives and clothing families who had lost homes to fire. Sabrina works with area Social workers to help families in need in area schools.
The Clothing Ministry Program has now become a major project within our church. Sabrina took over our former Christian Library Building and has stored the clothing in a very amazing organized system in this building, with help from Carole and Harry Sauer. We have teams of "folding angels" who help fold clothing for inventory; others come and sort the bags we get in the Clothing collection shed. Still others empty the shed or move the bins to our various functions. We currently partner with two (soon to be three) area food pantries and three homeless groups in Newburgh. We bring bins of sized clothing to the food distribution centers and the clients can get whatever they have need of. At our most recent pantry opportunity, a worker from a Newburgh ministry was able to expand their offerings from our supply-another area reached! We work closely with Monticello United Methodist church as well.
HOW CAN YOU HELP??
Pray for the success of this needed Ministry.
1. Donate time-we fold and sort on Sundays after service and some folks come during the week. This is a huge need to keep up with the volume. See Carole (845-561-6969)
2. Donate clothing-if you are switching out seasons of clothes and have stuff you no longer need, bag it and send it down. It helps even more if you fold it and bag it by gender and size. Please tag if you do this extra mile of work! (We also need good quality large rubbermaid tubs with tops)
3. Work at one of the events setting up, cleaning up or helping to run the day. Come at the end to help put tables away.
4. If you have clothing or bedding that you feel will be too shabby to recycle- Sabrina has found an outsource service that picks up things we can't recycle and pays us by the pound for them.
5 Offer to transport to, or work as a host for a food pantry give away date.
The Clothing Ministry Program has now become a major project within our church. Sabrina took over our former Christian Library Building and has stored the clothing in a very amazing organized system in this building, with help from Carole and Harry Sauer. We have teams of "folding angels" who help fold clothing for inventory; others come and sort the bags we get in the Clothing collection shed. Still others empty the shed or move the bins to our various functions. We currently partner with two (soon to be three) area food pantries and three homeless groups in Newburgh. We bring bins of sized clothing to the food distribution centers and the clients can get whatever they have need of. At our most recent pantry opportunity, a worker from a Newburgh ministry was able to expand their offerings from our supply-another area reached! We work closely with Monticello United Methodist church as well.
HOW CAN YOU HELP??
Pray for the success of this needed Ministry.
1. Donate time-we fold and sort on Sundays after service and some folks come during the week. This is a huge need to keep up with the volume. See Carole (845-561-6969)
2. Donate clothing-if you are switching out seasons of clothes and have stuff you no longer need, bag it and send it down. It helps even more if you fold it and bag it by gender and size. Please tag if you do this extra mile of work! (We also need good quality large rubbermaid tubs with tops)
3. Work at one of the events setting up, cleaning up or helping to run the day. Come at the end to help put tables away.
4. If you have clothing or bedding that you feel will be too shabby to recycle- Sabrina has found an outsource service that picks up things we can't recycle and pays us by the pound for them.
5 Offer to transport to, or work as a host for a food pantry give away date.
