Location: Dress For Success Offices
Date: Saturday, May 09, 2015; 10:00 am-2:00 pm
My plans for this morning had
been cancelled and so when I looked at the Chicago Cares calendar, this was one
of the few projects that had an opening.
Plus, it turned out to be in downtown, which was perfect; though I had
no clear idea on what the project entailed.
I was running late and so took a cab, but still ended up arriving 10
minutes late. The orientation had
already begun and yes, I was the only male there. After signing in, Doris - the lady in charge - tried to say my name several times and failed.
In the meanwhile I was beginning to think this had been a massive
mistake as the tasks were sorting women’s clothing into “work appropriate”, “after 5”
and “donation”. No wonder there were no guys here. Doris said that she would eventually get my
name right, and also get me a job more “suited
for my skills”.
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| Handy reference for this activity |
There was a lot of “learning” on what we were supposed to
be doing and not just for me as some of the other volunteers seemed a bit
unsure as well. We were emptying out
bags of clothes and then checking to see if they were damaged or had any stains
or cat hair. If so, then those were to
be in black bags for donation to ‘Goodwill’. The ones which did not make the bag were to
be examined for seasonality and if they weren’t winter coats or sweaters, they
would be either be on the rack as work clothes or on the other rack for after
work. I was consulting with the ladies
around me to check if they would make the cut or not. Even a slight hint of cat’s hair would mean
that the dress was rejected. After a bit
of trial and error I was getting a hang of it.
Some of the dresses were quite nice and colorful and if I thought that they
could be worn in the office, I would classify them accordingly. One volunteer next to me said that in her
job, everything was “work appropriate”…whatever
that meant!
In another room, one volunteer was
sorting through shoes and Doris mentioned that she was also a boxer who had won
many fights. Well, I knew who not to
cross! Doris asked me if I could help
fix the curtain holder, which required some maintenance work. I said that I was sorely lacking in any
skills related to that and so she sent me back to sorting. I found a bag with scarves and that was
easier for me than dresses. In fact, one
of the volunteers said that I had “lucked
out”. The scarves were indeed
beautiful and many were violet, which is of course my favorite. I discarded a few which had stains or holes,
but most of them were in decent condition.
As we did this, I told my fellow volunteers that we should be advocates
for colorful clothes “making it”
instead of being discarded, since everyone could use a bit of color in their
lives. Not sure how that was received
though.
I had not spotted the Chicago
Cares Volunteer leader for the day and she finally showed up, saying that she
had been upstairs directing traffic. Well,
that’s a new one. Not all of the
volunteers were through Chicago Cares, and a few of them had come via a 'Meetup'. There was also some networking
going on, with some job prospects being discussed. One
of the staff member’s came over to tell us about the organization. ‘Dress
For Success’ was started in 1996 with $5000 seed money in NYC and is now a
global institution. Their model is to
help women who are looking for a job.
They will not help them in preparing resumes, but rather look over one
and provide feedback. Then they would
set them up with a dress for the interview and if they were to get a job, then provide them with enough clothes for one week. Plus, the
women going through this program would also be a part of the network. I said that was great, since many
organizations do not follow through with their clients once they have provided
the services. I said that I could see a
huge networking opportunity facilitated by Chicago Cares, where they could get
organizations like these to work with some of their other members like ‘Open Door Shelter’ and ‘House Of The Good Shepherd’. The staff member was wearing a t-shirt called
“Bold and Beautiful Project” and she
told us about it, where women were invited for a makeover session as well as a
tutorial on how to do their own makeup; and I thought that it was terrific for
their self-esteem. I asked if this was
affiliated with the ‘Glass Slipper Project’ and she mentioned that it was a different organization, though similar
in concept.
It had been a good orientation and we continued with our
sorting. Some dresses had no tag for
sizes and we had to then look at others in the same bag and create a new tag
accordingly. Also, some were in numerical
sizes and others as ‘S’, ‘M’, ‘L’
etc. I would ask someone for help in
interpreting, but later learnt that there is a “cheat sheet” for this.
Doris had finally got my name right and stopped to give us a suitcase
which had clothes and yes, even more scarves.
The suitcase was to be donated to ‘Goodwill’
and soon enough their guys arrived with a truck. There was a massive pile of bags to take
upstairs and it took them a long time to do it.
In the meanwhile, we were almost done with the sorting and Doris said
that it had been the fastest shift that she had seen. I helped take some broken down boxes to the
recycle dumpster and then it was time to go.
Before leaving, Doris gave us some “health
mix powder” as a token of appreciation, along with… a scarf! It had been more fun than what I had thought
was possible. I had met these lovely
ladies and had learned more about women’s clothing that I would have otherwise.
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