Since 2016, we have been honouring International Women's Day by sponsoring and organizing our “Open Closet” event.
This is a pop-up giveaway of clothes and accessories to community members in need. In 2020, nearly 40 volunteers -- mostly from our club, some from the wider community -- worked to set up, organize, supervise and clean up.
We thank the Mennonite Central Community shop "Thrift on Kent" for their assistance again this year.
At 4pm on set-up day there was a stream of cars at St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church in downtown Kitchener. Volunteers, racks for clothing display, boxes of hangers, many cups of coffee, and bags and bags of donated clothing poured in. The next morning, in spite of the cold there was a long lineup of shoppers waiting to get in; until closing time, the door to the street was rarely closed. More than 175 members of our community walked away with new clothes. It is the smiles on the faces of those people who found appropriate clothing for themselves, or warm clothes for their children, that remain with us.