32nd Annual Free Clothes Giveaway….

Oct 17, 2019

by Sonja Alcock

Thinking back over the years of running this program I cannot help but smile at the people who are willing to keep this going after all this time.  Let me explain…….

When the Free Clothes Giveaway first began, it was the brain child of two women who had cottagers in our area leave bags of clothing with them in the fall to share with the locals if they needed it.  

In the summer of ’86 I showed up in Cloyne, newly married, expecting our first child, penniless and overwhelmed.  Shirley, my mother-in-law, was one of those two women whom had her attic full of bags of clothing and told me to find whatever I could to clothe my child.  I found enough clothing to last him until he was 5 years old!!  I wept.

Seeing this, Shirley spoke with Gail, the owner of the Cloyne General at the time and the other woman whom had bags full of clothing, both of whom attended Pineview Free Methodist Church here in Cloyne.  They thought maybe other women in our church would appreciate the opportunity to clothe their families as well.  So they brought the clothes to the basement of the church and all of us young mothers were able to find somethings to help save on clothing costs.   This was the basic beginning of this ministry, under the Women’s Mission International (WMI) committee.

A couple years later, a new leader of the WMI,  suggested opening the event to others within the community for we had so much clothing donated to the church by summer visitors, that we couldn’t get rid of it all.  This event was so well received that we realized that our small basement in the church wasn’t big enough, so Marianne asked the local township if we could use the Barrie Township Hall for free to host the event.  When the news got out that we were giving away clothing, the day of opening the doors 358 people came through the doors!!  We were overwhelmed.  We had to sit back and take it all in and learn how to make it more effective!!  There were a lot of glitches that needed to be knocked out.  One of which was what to do with all the unacceptable clothing that was donated.  At the end of those first events, a man from the church would come by with his big dump-truck to take the garbage away.  This had some rumours spread saying we were just throwing away good donations.  So like today, I wrote an article to explain what we were throwing away, and requested that donations be limited to clean, gently used clothing, footwear, etc.  That helped greatly.  Bye-the-way….all remaining clothing goes to the Salvation Army, Bible for Missions, and homeless shelters in Belleville or Kingston.  Nothing is thrown away, except that which is pure garbage.

Then the Barrie Township Hall had an issue with mold that wouldn’t allow us to use the hall for that year….and because our church had built on a sizeable addition,  the Free Clothes Giveaway was moved to the basement of the church, where it has been ever since.   Moving it to the church made some people in the community upset for they said that they would never walk into our church doors…so numbers of people coming dropped.  And over the years we have seen people within the church come and go, either moved on or passed away,  but the Free Clothes Giveaway still remained an important ministry of the community. Volunteers became less and less.  Two years ago there were only three of us doing it all, and we burned out.  We declared that we couldn’t physically do it anymore.  This wasn’t the news that the leaders of the church wanted to hear, so our  new pastor and his family took on the ministry and let me “help”.  It was wonderful to see new blood taking on this ministry that is vital to the community.  Even though the numbers of 358 who walk through the doors anymore…we are delighted that 120 still do….some old faithfuls, but often a lot of new people who haven’t heard of the Free Clothes Giveaway before…still shows that this ministry is needed.  Then unfortunately our new Pastor had to resign due to health reasons, and I found that I was the lone person to run the Free Clothes Giveaway.   I knew I couldn’t do it alone….and prayed.

In September my husband took me on a once in a lifetime, month long road trip through the states. I prayed.   When we came home 28 days later there was a message on the answering machine wanting to know when the Free Clothes Giveaway was being held for they had donations.  My heart sank.  I knew I was going to have to shut it down for physically I could not do this on my own.  I wasn’t going to ask for help from the ladies in the church, for most of them are in their later 70s & 80s.  Others have full-time jobs.  I didn’t know what to do.  So I put out a request on FaceBook to see if anyone was willing to help with the ministry….and within minutes I had several ladies in the community committing to give the three days required to pull the Free Clothes Giveaway off!!  Some of these people, I don’t know, but they have come to the giveaway or benefited, or know someone who needs it.  At the end of the day I had 7 volunteers…….and I’m delighted to say that these ladies realized that the Free Clothes Giveaway is a Community event, as it has always was meant to be.

With that said, mark Thursday, October 24th @2:00pm on your calendar if you want to come out and help set up tables, and sort through the donations to put on those tables.

The event is on Friday, October 25th from 9:00 am until 5:00 pm & Saturday, October 26th from 9:00am until 2:00pm.  Volunteers will be needed to tear down…pack the clothing and put away the tables!

And a volunteer will be needed to take the remaining clothing to Kingston or Belleville.

A new era has begun…..looking forward to the next 32 years!