Free Clothes Give-Away in Cloyne

Sonja Alcock | Oct 20, 2011

Pineview Free Methodist Church is doing it again - 24 years to be exact - of giving away clothing! It all started with people dropping off bags of clothing at Shirley Wise's house and at the Cloyne General Store, owned by the Clelands back then. They had so much clothing that they decided to bring it to the church basement and had those who attended the church go through it to see what we needed. It was a godsend to us young mothers to be able to clothe our families for nothing. The event was so productive that eventually it grew...and our little church at the time couldn't host the event anymore, so we moved it to Barrie Township Hall and called it the Free-Clothes Give-Away. The first time we opened our doors, over 358 people came into the hall over the two-day event to get clothing for their families. Pineview was the first to see this need and it spread like wildfire. Instead of doing it once a year in the fall, we were given so much clothing that we had to host two a year - spring and fall.

Then the Barrie Hall had to be shut down for renovations and we decided to move the Give-Away back to the church, which by then had built a new addition with a fellowship hall to accommodate large crowds. We had people as far as Sydenham, Ottawa, Oshawa, Renfrew, and Pembroke come to provide clothing for their families. It often surprised us to see new people who had never heard of the Give-Away leave the building almost in tears because of how blessed they were by being able to save money in such hard times.

As time went on, our volunteers running the event have grown older.....and we also noted that other places in the area were hosting their own events.....Flinton Rummage Sale, and the United Church Northbrook Clothing Boutique opened. Then Value Village hit the market. Clothing was not coming in in abundance, as it once had. We didn't want to be in competition with those who were trying to raise money for worthy causes. Our event doesn't raise much money at all. So we thought of shutting down the Give-Away, but calls from concerned citizens made us change our minds. However, we did decide to go back to hosting only one event annually – in the fall.

Now we work hand-in-hand with the Rummage Sale in Flinton. Whatever clothing they cannot sell, they donate to the Free Clothes Give-Away.

Either way the community gets the benefit from both events, clothing their families for the winter months. And whatever clothing is left over from the Give-Away is packed up. Some is sent to communities in the far north, and the rest is sent to March of Dimes, or Salvation Army. Over the years we used to get “garbage clothing” until I wrote an article about what the event is all about, and now we hardly get any garbage anymore.

We do get items we can use as rags, which benefits the local garages and school shops. Last year we had only two bags of garbage to throw out.

This year's Free Clothes Give-Away will be held Friday, October 21 from 9AM till 5PM, and Saturday, October 22, from 9AM till 2PM at Pineview Free Methodist Church, 14397 Highway #41, just south of Cloyne in the basement of the church.

Donations of clean, gently used clothing and linens may be dropped off at the church on Thursday, October 20 and Friday, October 21. Thanks, everyone.