Clarissa Mead has a passion for shopping and clothes. But hers is unlike most. It’s not about couponing or hunting for sales at the local mall. Instead, the director of God’s Closet, a Spokane nonprofit clothing bank supported by Adventist Community Services channels her passion into making sure other people have a chance to shop.
Mead grew up doing community service in the church with her parents in the summer and during breaks from school. She remembers going with her mother at a young age to sort clothes for people who needed them, and says that experience led her to take the position as a volunteer director with God’s Closet when her family moved to Spokane two years ago.
“I have a burden for being a missionary in our own town,” Mead said. “People spend thousands of dollars to go on mission trips and take new clothes and shoes to foreign countries to give away to the impoverished people there. there are a lot of families here [in the U.S.] who need help to who really can’t even afford to go to garage sales or thrift stores.”
Despite the state’s decreasing unemployment rate since the Great Recession, many families still use services like God’s Closet, which charges a flat $1 entrance fee and doesn’t require proof of income or ID to use services. The store is staffed by six regular volunteers and supported by Spokane’s Central Seventh Day Adventist Church. Events are always packed, serving around 250 families quarterly, and people come early. Mead recalls the wait for a recent shopping event starting at 9 a.m.
“There’s a big need. People start lining up at 8:30, and they start lining up around the block,” she said.
The bank provides clothes for children aged newborn to 14 years old, Mead said, and is set up at the church’s fellowship hall on Spofford Avenue.
Advertising mostly gets done the old-fashioned way — by word of mouth — although the site does have a Facebook page and website, and Mead sends fliers to a few doctors’ offices in town. She’s also found community centers and other Facebook groups that are willing to advertise the events.
God’s Closet’s customers are families of all types — single and expecting parents looking for baby or maternity clothes (the only type of adult clothing the shop stocks), and people looking for back to school or summer outfits they can’t afford to replace as their children grow out of old ones.
God’s Closet’s next shopping event is Friday, Aug. 7 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Charge for entry is $1, and each shopper can fill a bag with clothing of their choice. Volunteers and donations are always needed, Mead said.
God’s Closet is also helping host a free health clinic at the Interstate Fairgrounds Aug. 3 and Aug. 4 in partnership with the Seventh Day Adventist Church and an organization called Your Best Pathway to Health. The mobile clinic, staffed by volunteer medical professionals, provides services such as dental, vision and well-woman exams, among other services, to the uninsured. At its last location in San Antonio, Texas, approximately 1,500 volunteers provided services to more than 6,000 people. Many had to be turned away. Mead expects a big turnout for the Spokane event, and said the organization has requests to do at least six more clinics after Spokane’s.
[box type=”info” align=”alignleft” class=”” width=””]If you go: God’s Closet Location: 804 Spofford W. Avenue Date: Friday August 7 Time: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Cost: $1 More information: (509) 280-7648 or [email protected] Restrictions: Clothes for ages 0-14[/box]
[box type=”info” align=”alignright” class=”” width=””]If you go: Your Best Pathway to Health Location: Spokane County Fairgrounds Date: August 3 and 4 Time: 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Cost: Free More information: http://yourbestpathwaytohealth.org/[/box]
God’s Closet is in need of NEW Clothes to donate to share at the fairgrounds. They can be dropped off at the Spokane Central Church located at 828 W. Spofford in Spokane between the hours of 9-12 M-TH or Call the number on FB to make arrangements for drop off.