Roland School has started a clothing swap program for parents to get new clothes for their children who attend the school.
The idea behind the clothing swap comes from the school’s secretary Marcia Rempel.
“It was last winter when I thought up to do a clothing swap here,” said Rempel. “As a parent, I often have items that my children have outgrown, and I thought this would be a great avenue to pass it along.”
The clothing swap at Roland School was designed in such a way that families could drop off items ahead of time that they had outgrown or no longer needed and then stop by at the clothing swap to pick up anything they could use.
The school began accepting items in mid-September, and they were blessed with a lot of fantastic donations.
“We wanted families to be aware that they were invited to stop by the clothing swap even if they didn’t have anything to donate,” said Rempel. “We wanted to help our students have access to warm winter clothing and whatever else was available. It was very exciting to see parents come by and pick out items for their children, and then to watch the excitement as they came to school wearing the ‘new to them’ items the next day.”
Rempel utilized the school app to advertise the event, as well as sent home flyers, make some phone calls, and send messages. She knew that not all families were as frequent on the app as others, so she went out of her way to ensure everyone knew about it.
The clothing swap received many sweaters, pants, winter boots, rubber boots, shoes, shirts, jackets, winter jackets, snow pants, and other miscellaneous items.
Standard Photo by Marcia Rempel
Roland School plans to put the items out again during the upcoming parent/teacher conferences since they still have items left over. They haven’t decided how often the clothing swap will take place at the school, but it will most likely be once a year.
“I’m really hoping to make this an annual event because, as a parent, I know how quickly they outgrow clothing items and how expensive it can be to purchase children’s clothing. Maybe this can be a way for us all to help each other out.”
