Clothing swaps combine style and sustainability

An exchange that brings communities together and brings stability to lives.

Taylor World Outreach (TWO) is hosting its annual clothing swap on April 30 from 5 to 6:30 p.m. This event has been a tradition for over 10 years, taking place in the TWO office inside the Larita Boren Campus Center.

To collect donations, TWO maintains bins in each dorm and TWO office, where any student or faculty member can place their donations. Each donation will be turned in to the front desk of each hostel.

Jen McKim, TWO’s office manager and Community Plunge coordinator, has worked with the program for eight years.

“For every item of clothing that you drop off, they will give you a ticket for each item.” “Then you just bring your tickets to the clothing swap, and that’s basically how you pay for whatever you get,” McKim said.

As part of the event, Taylor’s students donate clothing in exchange for one red ticket for each item given. These tickets serve as free money when they participate in a clothing swap.

“There’s stuff for everyone, we always have girls’ clothes and boys’ clothes in every size.” said Vinnie Talarico, co-director of the Clothing Swap.

This event only provides clothing; No bags or accessories will be included in the swap.

All students and faculty members are welcome to participate in the swap, even if they decide not to donate.

“You can buy them for a dollar a piece… but a lot of times we’ll give them away anyway because we have so much left over.” Talarico said.

There will be a desk at the entrance to both offices for everyone to check out and collect their tickets.

“We have all kinds of people coming in, and it’s a really fast-paced program,” McKim said. “Within the first hour, most people came and were done with everything.”

The program is like shopping at a thrift store, Talarico said. TWO works to transform your space into a simulated thrift store environment.

“It always shocks me every year we do it,” McKim said. “I’ll walk by the door and see some students and then five minutes later, it’ll be like, wow.”

The two men partnered with Helping Hands, an Upland shop, to donate excess clothing after the event.

Talarico emphasized that both swapping and saving are about sustainability.

“This year we are partnering with eco assistants in the dorms to promote more sustainability,” Talarico said.

Once all the donations are collected, TWO organizes them and lays out all the clothes in the office.

“We’re trying to set it up like a little store, so we’ll have mirrors all around, and then we’ll turn these three offices into dressing rooms,” McKim said.

The line will start from two entrances at the Larita Boren Campus Centre.