By Michael Howell
The Clothes Closet in Stevensville is a community-based non-profit that provides free clothing, linens and kitchen supplies to Ravalli County residents and, according to Board President Molly Hackett, business is always fairly brisk.
Hackett said in order to get a handle on how much the service was really being used, they acquired a scale and began weighing the clothes going in and out of the “free store”. This past year the Clothes Closet served 8,881 clients and distributed 98,964 pounds of clothing.
“Our board and staff are all unpaid volunteers who sort, launder, display, cut rags, and help serve our clientele,” said Hackett. She said that volunteers put in 7,316 hours of labor in 2014.
While serving people in need has always been the top priority at the store, a second priority, according to Hackett, has been to keep things out of the dump.
“People don’t like to throw things away,” said Hackett, “so they sometimes bring in items that are too worn out or in too poor condition even for people in real need.” She said volunteers like Gail Fisher have always been very good about finding ways to use clothing that no one wants to wear but no amount of ingenuity can take care of all the items looking for a new home. As a result there was always a hefty amount that, in the end, would get hauled (for a fee) to the trash dump in Missoula.
Then one day a little over a year ago volunteers Joe Galipeau and Don Bailey hatched an idea. What if the clothes could be recycled instead of being trashed?
In 2013, the opportunity to put that idea into action was provided by a $17,000 grant from the Rapp Family Foundation. It was a first-of-a-kind grant for the foundation in that it was offered to a coalition of groups who would work on a community project together. A few other organizations jumped on the idea including RSVP, SAFE, the Commodity Center and Ravalli County Recycling. They put together a joint proposal and were awarded the grant in November 2013.
“Our trash bill was cut in half almost immediately,” said Hackett.
She said that the operation is not running exactly as it did when inaugurated because Ravalli County Recycling is no longer involved. Instead, the extra unwanted but usable clothing is being hauled away by Missoula 3:16 Rescue Mission to Missoula where it is then shipped to Africa and re-distributed.
“The Rapp Family Foundation should feel good about what has been accomplished,” said Hackett. Although the Clothes Closet does not get any money for the clothing it sends to the 3:16 Mission, Hackett said they do get a lot of satisfaction in knowing that the usable clothing is going to be used and not just dumped into a landfill.
Monetary donations to the Clothes Closet are always welcome, according to Hackett, to help pay the rent, the utility bill, and for maintenance and cleaning supplies.
The “free store,” located on Middle Burnt Fork Road, is open Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m. Donations of items are accepted from 1 to 3:30. Board meetings are on the first Wednesday of each month.