Overwhelmed by the town’s support after a 2014 fire, the Seventh-day Adventist church (SDA) is keen to give back to the community with an initiative to help young families.
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The church lost its facilities in the fire, but were surrounded with generosity from the local community. In particular, the local Uniting church lent their facilities to the SDA church to meet in for nearly two years.
The SDA church decided to use their new facilities for a pop-up op shop to help young families clothe their children, in a concept called ‘God’s Closet’.
God’s Closet is run totally by volunteers and is financially supported by the local Adventist Church.
The concept is simple; donations of gently-used children’s clothing are collected from the bright blue donation bin at the church or you can use the pickup service, and then distributed at a ‘free shop’ in the church hall every three months.
There is large turnover of clothes at each event and, as each shop day is at the change of seasons, the clothing is always different.
Since starting they have had support from the Tweed Valley ADRA Op Shop, which supplies lots of new and used clothing, and a group of enthusiastic supporters in Toowoomba who buy clothes in their area to donate to God’s Closet.
One local team member has prepared and given away seventeen ‘welcome baby’ baskets for new mums and another team member collects lots of cuddly soft toys to give away to the children.
The main advertising and information about ‘God’s Closet’ is by their Facebook page.
Recently volunteers ran a back to school promotion, giving away five new school packs to help families with the extra costs at the beginning of the year.
The response was huge with over one hundred shares and expansion of their Facebook community, as well as having the joy of five children start school with a new back pack and stationary.
Everyone can shop at God’s Closet.
Last year over 180 families visited. No ID or documentation is needed. Shoppers fill in an admission form and go in the running for a food hamper, pay $1 and God’s Closet supplies the shopping bags.
Each family also receives a pair of new children’s pyjamas, and then shoppers can select the clothes they need - folded and sorted into sizes and gender by volunteers to make it easy.
At every free shop day there are bonus promotions to add something special to the experience – at the February shop each person received a little gift bag of heart chocolates, in May last year mothers were honoured with a special gift, and for the November shop there was some fun for the kids with a jumping castle, face painting and balloons. Every event is different.
The next free shop day is on Sunday, May 13 – everyone is welcome to come along. To learn more, visit the God’s Closet Facebook page.
