Volunteer support keeps Kent Area Council PTA clothing bank open

The Kent Area Council PTA clothing bank will continue serving families in the Kent School District, thanks to three volunteers who have stepped up to coordinate the project.

Beth Willey, Tami Lee and Veronica Johns took over as co-chairs of the clothing bank after the previous chairs announced they would be stepping down in December, and the clothing bank would close if no one volunteered to run it.

Jan Bigbee-Hansen and Brooke Valentine co-chaired the clothing bank, which operates out of Kent Phoenix Academy, for four and five years respectively.

“When I heard it was going away I thought, ‘That’s not a good thing,'” Johns said. “I didn’t want to see a good thing lost.”

“I didn’t realize how close it was to going away,” Lee added.

Willey said the clothing bank is a valuable asset to the community.

“There’s a huge amount of families who need our help,” she said.

The clothing bank provides gently used clothes free of charge, as well as new underwear and socks, to children in the school district and their younger siblings who are referred through their school or a community agency.

Last school year, the clothing bank served 1,263 children from 680 families.

Bigbee-Hansen said she was relieved when volunteers stepped up to keep the clothing bank running.

“We were all in panic about what we were going to do but we found people,” she said.

Johns said the Syrian refugee crisis inspired her to help locally. Many of the families who utilize the clothing bank are immigrants or refugees.

“I just felt so helpless, frustrated and angry,” Johns said. “There is such a need here. We have so many immigrants in our own neighborhoods.”

Lee is active in the PTAs at Northwood Middle School and Kentridge High School and has helped at the clothing bank throughout the years.

“It is part of our responsibility on our school’s night to get parents involved,” Lee said of her duties as PTA president and vice president at her children’s schools. “It’s a good way for kids to get their community service hours.”

PTAs at the various schools take turns providing volunteers to staff the clothing bank on its open nights. The clothing bank is typically open two Tuesday nights per month from 6 to 8.

Willey, who learned about the clothing bank through the PTA at her daughter’s elementary school, said filling their predecessors’ shoes predecessors will be a lofty task.

“Jan and Brooke have set a really high bar,” Willey said. “It’s such a large learning curve.”

But Lee said the new leaders are looking forward to serving the community.

“We really just want to keep Jan and Brooke’s vision going,” Lee said. “I want to help it grow and get more people involved.”

Valentine said she appreciates the new chairs’ enthusiasm.

‘To me it was so important that we got new chairs that kind of have the same outlook on the clothing bank,” she said. “You have to have an attitude of grace and gratitude. You don’t know why someone is in this line (to get clothes). You have to wonder what would it take to put you in this line.”

The trio of new chairs have spent time during the past couple of months learning the ropes of the clothing bank. The clothing bank will be open for the first time under their oversight on Tuesday, Jan. 5.

Bigbee-Hansen said leaving her post at the clothing bank is bittersweet.

“I’ll miss all those people I wont get to see as regularly,” she said. “I will really miss the families and all the little kids.”

Valentine said the transition is harder than she thought it would be.

“It (the clothing bank) has really helped me be a better person,” she said.”I don’t think we often realize how much need a community has until you work on one of these projects. The families are in need at no fault of their own.”

Bigbee-Hansen and Valentine said they’re sure they’ll still be involved in some capacity with the clothing bank.

“People will call me about stuff,” Bigbee-Hansen said. “People will drop things off at my door. I’ll just drive it over and bring it in.”

Willey and her co-chairs won’t be left alone coordinating the clothing bank. She said is she grateful for the support from volunteers to keep the clothing bank running smoothly.

“I was really pleasantly surprised with how many people are consistently volunteers,” she said. “It’s those people that have found the thing they like to do and have the capacity to do it.”

Students from The Outreach Program (TOP) in the school district also work at the clothing bank during the week, organizing clothes that have been donated. TOP serves 18-to-21-year-old special needs students and provides them with job training.

For more information about the clothing bank or to get involved, visit kacpta.org/committees1/clothing-bank-2/.

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The Kent Area Council PTA clothing bank will be open from 6-8 p.m. on the following Tuesdays at Kent Phoenix Academy, 11000 SE 264th St.

• Jan. 5, 19

• Feb. 9, 23

• March 8, 22

• April 12, 26

• May 10, 24