Tabernacle PTA gets charitable
By Katrina Grant
Tabernacle Township PTA is organizing a used clothing collection drive for the Fashion Republic Co. Each year the PTA hosts the clothing drive in May and November and collects clothing items to send overseas. People are able to donate used clothing, shoes, household items, belts, shoes, toys and stuffed animals.
“We started doing this 10 years ago, when our former local president said she did it in her school district,” Donna O’Malley, who is in charge of the drive, said. “You hear something like this and you think it’s too good to be true, but this isn’t too good to be true.”
Whatever clothes are donated are weighed in ponds and the PTA is given 13 cents a pound for the donated clothing.
“They send the clothing overseas to third world countries,” O’Malley said. “Some of the clothes are given away and some are given to people to help them start businesses. One woman was given pocketbooks and she started a street vendor business. I don’t know if people see that as good or bad, but if you teach someone to fish they feed themselves.”
Each year in November and May, the PTA collects the clothing for two weeks. “We try to coincide with people cleaning out their closet,” O’Malley said. “We try to get the word out around the school. The school let’s us use their outside storage and the custodian helps out with loading when they come to pick up the clothing. It really is a community effort, the school helps out a lot.”
In addition to the clothing drive the PTA is having a food drive for the holidays. They also just finished having a cookie drive for the soldiers.
“We collected four boxes of packaged cookies and the Yellow Ribbon Club sent them overseas,” O’Malley said. “We are always doing something charitable here. We try to teach the kids the spirit of charitable giving.”
