Recycled clothes and new awareness at Northwestern’s Global Marketplace
by Tracy Fuad on December 8, 2009
This fall, the Northwestern Chapter raised funds and awareness for The HOPE Center in Ghana through a new fundraiser they called the Global Marketplace.
The concept was simple: Chapter members asked for donated items from dorms, sororities, and fraternities, accepting everything from high heels and an ipod to tables and lots of girls clothing. Some members went door-to-door and made collections, and others who lived in the area brought items from their family’s homes.
Collected items were sorted and priced between 50 cents and $5, and laid out in rummage-sale fashion in a large room at the student center. Fifteen minutes before the event began, students were already lined up outside waiting for it to start.
Students were excited about the idea of buying things donated by other Northwestern students, and excited to learn that even a few dollars would make a difference for Northwestern’s partner organization in Ho, Ghana.
The HOPE Center is a health center that serves 6,000 people in eight villages and with help from Northwestern’s continued partnership, is currently working to address malnutrition. Through community nutrition projects and education, the HOPE Center and Northwestern aim to reduce local malnutrition rates for children under age five from 45% to 15%.
“We had a lot of people at the event who had never even heard of GlobeMed before,” said Katie Smiley, Co-Campaign Director.
Once they learned what the event was funding, many event-goers signed up for the listserv, and others were compelled to donate more, buying $5 of clothes with a $20 bill and letting GlobeMed keep the change, for example.
“It was amazing how you can really motivate people when you let them know what kind of cause you are working for,” said Smiley.
While many fundraisers result in asking your friends to do you a favor, this one provided a service that students on campus were looking for, said Smiley, one reason for its success.
The event was also environmentally friendly, encouraging people to find a new purpose for things instead of buying something new from a store.
Continuing in this spirit, everything that remained after the event was taken to a local recycled fashion store and sold for $54, bringing the money raised to a grand total of $1295. Since there was no initial cost, all the money raised goes to profit.
“I promised the chapter I’d buy them pizza if we raised more than $500,” said Co-Campaign director Alyson Weiner, who was happy with the success of the campaign, and happy to reward the chapter’s hard work with pizza.
“I’m really proud of our members and all of Northwestern coming together, working for an important goal, and showing that they care about helping others,” she said.
One thing the chapter hopes to improve next year is in making it easier to donate items, especially for students who live off-campus.
“A lot of people who came to the event said that they would have liked to donate things,” said Smiley, “but hadn’t had of the opportunity.”
Smiley hopes to see this event adopted by other chapters, and is excited to see how the event can be further improved. One possibility she suggested is collecting items at the end of the school year, when everyone is moving out, and reselling them at the beginning of the next school year.
“When you put on event where people know they are getting something out of it, they are personally willing to give a little more,” said Smiley.
Leona Millenium says on April 03, 2010 at 10:38am:
Continuing in this spirit, everything that remained after the event was taken to a local recycled fashion store and sold for $54, bringing the money raised to a grand total of $1295. Since there was no initial cost, all the money raised goes to profit. <a href='http://www.bargainsavenue.com'> levis 501 </a>Clothes says on April 13, 2010 at 11:39am:
It is good that some people will find it usful to give their old clothes to those who is in need.