Donate clothes to Katrina victims in your area?

[late-night nan]

Since Katrina victims are now scattered around the country, there must be a lot of new need out there for clean, used clothes, especially in cold-weather areas that have taken in relocated people from the Gulf Coast. A friend is moving and has a ton of clothes, so we're looking to combine their things with our decluttering as a donation since about 500 from New Orleans were flown into our area. Am planning to suggest to our church that the relocated folks should be allowed to "shop" in our church resale shop for free, or at least our church could fill requests for warm clothes, shoes and other needs. Anyone else have luck donating things directly to local Katrina victims?

[Amys1st]

I think its a great idea. But keep in mind what you're donating. I have heard from some volunteers sorting out things that people will donate just about anything. 1 in every 3 things had to be discarded because it was so worn out or badly stained etc. So donate new or gently used clothes. If you have clothes that your kids beat up, think twice anyway about donating. But out grown things that were not used as much are fine.

Also consider buying a pack of onesies and washing them to donate. Encourage others to do the same. Some things I have heard that need to be brought down to the area are: t-shirts, shorts, sun block, flip flops, ready to eat meals (pop tarts, power bar type things), gift cards to various groceries, wal mart, gas etc, and of course all baby items.

Consider donating a car seat, stroller, baby carrier or sling to local drives for people coming in.

Please also, do not neglect the normal charities you also give to. They are all going to suffer since everyone is giving to the Katrina disastar right now.

[late-night nan]

this is a great point about checking your donations for stained or unusable clothes. I'd like to think that everything could get used indefinitely, but that's not always the case. if i had the time and patience to learn how to dye clothes, we probably would never need to buy anything new for our wardrobe basics!

anyway, i'm also following the thread on the natural home boards about minimizing lead exposure. one suggestion was to clean your windowsills with paper towels (old lead paint can get painted over but will rub off from windows and doors, mixing into dust in the window sills and "gutters") since anything used for lead abatement needs to be throw away, not washed. so we're going to use our old clothing as rags for this purpose.

[Ruthla]

One more thing to keep in mind about the Katrina tragedy- in every area, there were already disadvantaged people in need of help, and many of them have been displaced by the aid going to Katrina victims. So, any help you give to anybody is appreciated, whether that person has been directly affected by the hurricane or not.

[pilesoflaundry]

I donated a trash bag full of clothing and another with sheets and such to the local community center. And yes I second the idea of nothing trashed or stained. These people have nothing and to be only given gross castoffs won't make them feel better.

They set up a "store" it's organized and everything is separated by size so the victims housed in this area can go in and pick out what they need in the appropriate sizes for themselves and their family as much as they need. But it's a free store, just set up better than making them dig through boxes and bags of donations . It was a town wide drive and everyone gave, it was so nice.