Clothing appeal for families in need
On Saturday 24 April, in partnership with Reigate-based charity, Stripey Stork, RGS once again transformed the playground into a drop-off point for donations to support local families facing financial hardship.
We all know how quickly children grow out of their clothes, but for some families, this presents yet another burden on strained finances. For this reason, we are incredibly proud to continue our work with local charity, Stripey Stork.
Older children’s clothing is something that Stripey Stork is often short of – children aged 11 to 16 tend to have fewer clothes and wear them for longer, so there are less available to pass on. A steady stream of parents seemed only too pleased to relinquish themselves of their children’s unwanted jeans, trousers, leggings, shorts, skirts, dresses, tops, shirts, jumpers, hoodies and pyjamas. We also received a huge number of both fiction and non-fiction books, which young people can keep and treasure.
To comply with social distancing, we asked donors to place items in bags in the boot of their cars, which were then removed by our team of student volunteers. Stripey Stork were hugely impressed with the quality and amount of donations:
I wanted to say a huge thank you for organising the event on Saturday. We filled eight cars full to the brim, making several trips back and forth to fill our foyer. These items will be quarantined for 72 hours, before passing them on to families who need them. The quality of the clothes and books was lovely and almost exclusively items on our wish list. We could tell that people had taken the time to clean, fold and label items, which is really helpful as it means that items can be passed on to children who need them that much quicker.
The Sixth Form volunteers were also brilliant – getting stuck in. I was particularly impressed with the girls at the end who got involved in sorting and it was really valuable to have their input – they had an insight into sizes that was really useful. I was questioning which age group would wear a woman’s size 4/6/8 and they were able to look at the size of the clothes and sort by eye.
We have recently received a referral on behalf of 14-year-old twin boys. The boys have moved in with their Nan and she has been struggling and got into debt. She has been relying on the Foodbank since November and there isn’t any money for clothes for the growing boys. It was great to be able to tell them that we definitely had stock and would be able to help! Please pass our thanks on to all those who donated, and particularly for the quality and condition of the items – it makes such a difference.
Donna Pariser, Community Ambassador, Stripey Stork
We are so proud to have such an incredibly supportive community. Thank you to all those who responded to this appeal.
Our next RGSWeCare event is a Foodbank collection on Saturday 22 May.