Promwear Giveaway

We will have a volunteer meeting on March 8 at 11:00 AM at the central library in one of the meeting rooms downstairs. At this meeting we will go over everything each kind of volunteer needs to know. It is not imperative volunteers attend, but we hope that many do so that the core leadership isn’t answering all the questions on gameday.

We will start setup in the afternoon on Friday, March 21 at the Career Center on North Avenue 2935 N. Ave, building B (one of the trailers immediately on North). First we will take down and move all the tables and chairs–last year they were mostly done so we might have to set some up, or stack some for extra space.

We have a box truck reserved for the weekend. Off first will be the racks, which are now color coded. We have tools but others are welcome to bring theirs. Once those are loaded in and constructed, all the bins of clothing will be brought in. They will be sorted into each room by size: 10 and under and 11 and up. The bins are already sorted by size so it will be a matter of checking which it has and placing that bin in that room. The garments will be hung by color.

Shoes and accessories will go in their own room on tables. Shoes may need cleaned and have a dot put inside them to indicate what size they are. Any donations of makeup, lotions, and jewelry can be set out on our display pieces or on the table. All these tables will have tablecloths.

The dressing room & refresh stations will be in the last room. We will put up chairs for parent/sibling seating, tables for the volunteers who will do alterations on site, mirrors, our dividers for dressing spaces, and hang sheets from the ceiling for additional dividers. A lead volunteer will be available for answering questions or to take point as this is not exactly easy to describe.

The bathrooms can be swept and have a chair put in them as they are sometimes used for changing spaces. The welcome table will be set up and organized, and the volunteer station as well.

Snacks and drinks will be placed in the accessories room as well as on the volunteer table. Signage goes up everywhere–on tables, on racks, on walls, on doors, and out by the road and in the parking lot.

Saturday we will open doors at 9:00 and we will be open until 3:00. We will need staff to put away unchosen garments, gather empty hangars, and review any donated clothing. This is a low key but constant job. It is also helpful to have staff to assist the volunteer sewers and to help at the dressing rooms.

From 3-5 on Saturday, we will have a Safer Shopping Hour for LGBTQIA+ youth. This is typically a very slow time of day and we spend it picking up stray pieces, filing garments, finding hangers, replacing broken hangers, and the like.

We will be open 9-3 on Sunday as well. From 3-5 we will start packing each room, keeping count of garments that are being packed. This requires juggling bins with lids, as some will have inevitably broken during storage and moving. We will have a volunteer take the counts and write them on the whiteboard throughout this process. There are three rooms so three staff for this is helpful, and then of course the packing staff. Once these bins are loaded, we will take down the clothing racks and load those into the truck.

Please let me know if you need further details. If anyone wants to know what they can bring or donate aside from the items we’re giving away, snacks, flats of water, fuzzy hangers, full-length mirrors that can stand on their own, and lamps are the high-priority items to make the event run even more smoothly and improve the experience for teens.