VCU’s community members looking for a place to give some of their old clothes or extra food found one last week through the Student Alumni Ambassadors Association’s campuswide food and clothing drive for the Daily Planet, a local organization that serves the homeless in Richmond.
The most needed items included coats, gloves and hats, but the association accepted all clothing.
Pamela Hayter, the association’s adviser, said this is the third year the group has sponsored the drive, which it established to involve the VCU community in a service event for the holiday season people especially need assistance.
“It’s gotten bigger and bigger each year, which is a great thing,” Hayter said. “We’re hoping that this year will be huge.”
Ending its drive last Friday, the association accepted donations of nonperishable boxed and canned foods and all clothing. Last year, the group collected one carload of food and clothing, and Hayter earlier said she thought it would be nice if the group would need to rent a U-Haul trailer this year.
First-year student Anthony Frazier, the association’s vice president, said he talked to students in his dorm about donating food and clothes, telling them he hoped the campus would see that other people are in need so they would help someone else.
Hayter said the group chose to work with the Daily Planet because it is a local shelter that serves Richmonders through free meals and free clothes for the disadvantaged people in the area.
“We wanted something right in the city, and we knew the stuff would go to the people in the city,” Hayter said.
Almonique Vaughan, the Daily Planet’s volunteer activities coordinator, said as a free-resource agency for homeless to become self-sufficient, the shelter offers medical care, case management, meals, laundry services, showers and a clothing closet. Vaughan said the staff also arranges interviews for employment and housing for its clients. Clothing drives, Vaughan said, remain important to the organization, because most of the clothes it provides to its clients are used ones, and people usually give good-quality clothes. Without special clothes, she said, the homeless cannot become self-sufficient because they need appropriate clothing for job interviews.
“Clothing drives are what keep our clients clothed and saves me from saying ‘no’ to them,” Vaughan said.
The shelter, Vaughan said, particularly appreciates donated clothes from the VCU community, because they provide younger styles and generally in very good condition-sometimes even new. Donated coats and jeans become the most useful since many of her clients sleep outdoors when colder weather arrives, and thus need several layers of clothing for warmth.
“Participation in these drives is important because you’re giving back to the community and your clothes are actually being used,” Vaughan said.