Ethan Tawn
On Oct. 15 and 17, Leadership’s Health and Earth Wellness Crew hosted the Homecoming Thrift Store to promote sustainability and thrifting within the Aragon community. In the weeks leading up to the event, students donated articles of formal wear to bins in front of the main office and in front of the leadership room.
“[We got] a lot of dresses; our rack was pretty full,” said freshman and HEW Crew member Claire O’Brien. “We also got some dress shirts and pants and ties as well. Some of the dresses definitely fit in the theme [Light Up the Night].”
Students donated a wide variety of clothes, which included many high-end pieces.
“We got a lot of donations [and] some of the dresses were really expensive and from really nice brands,” said sophomore and HEW Crew member Tahlia Shahani.
During lunch, students were free to pick out one to two articles free of charge.
“I heard about [the Thrift Store] from Live Announcements,“ said junior Sarah Walter. “I was really surprised, everything [was] really cute. I saw my friend was walking and she had a cute dress, and I was like ‘wait, there’s some cute options’.“
Many visited the store during lunch, with there only being a few pieces left at the end. Feedback from customers has also been positive, with many enjoying the sustainability aspect of the event, and being able to recycle clothing that is often worn only once.
“It’s creative, and it’s good for the environment as well,” said freshman Chloe Lim.“It might give people new ideas, spur creative thinking and let people get a sense of other people’s style”.
People often buy formal clothing solely for one event, and the Homecoming Thrift Store allows these often neglected clothes to find a new purpose.
“[The point of] the thrift store was to reuse dresses so that we can reduce the waste in our community and give people dresses that they otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to buy,” Shahani said. “We [hoped] that it [would] encourage people to thrift and pass things down to students. We also hoped that [students would] see that you could get really great [formal wear] secondhand.”
Leadership hopes this thrift store will become a recurring event.
“We see this as becoming a tradition in the future, and we’re hoping to do it for [Winter Formal] in a similar way to Homecoming,” Shahani said.
By the end of the event, there were very few items left, mostly consisting of dress shirts. The leftover clothing was donated to a local thrift store in the area. HEW Crew will host the next thrift store for Winter Formal, which will take place in February.
