Giving Closet offers more than clothes

Denise Currie would love to have the Giving Closet open more days during the week, but to do that she needs more volunteers.

“We have 30 and they’re wonderful,” said Currie, executive director of the nonprofit.

Currie is the only full-time employee, and there are two part-time employees — one of whom is her daughter Jen Choate. So, the work the Giving Closet does is heavily volunteer-driven. Every time there’s a major holiday, the nonprofit closes for the week because volunteers are busy with their families. The doors have been shuttered the last couple of weeks, because of the winter holidays. The store opens again on Monday for donations and on Wednesday to shoppers.

On non-holiday Wednesdays and Thursdays, families living in poverty can visit the Giving Closet and get emergency supplies, mainly clothing, a few cans of food and some household items. Domestic violence victims with the YWCA Clark County get “household start-over kits” to make the transition to independence more smooth.

“Everything here is free — free, free and free,” Currie said. “I was kind of poor as a kid, so I get the drill.”

Some clients say the closet is their main store. The nonprofit occupies multiple spaces in a commercial warehouse building in central Vancouver. For two years, the Giving Closet had a day shelter in the section that’s now used to collect and sort donations. It shows how the nonprofit has grown, both in its physical space and the number of people it serves.

The Giving Closet has helped 1,587 families in 2015.

Since the Giving Closet officially became a legal nonprofit agency in 2011, word has spread about the Giving Closet’s service and a lot has happened in the last year. The Giving Closet went through a weekend training with the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, which taught them advertising and grant writing techniques. The nonprofit sponsored 71 young adults in the foster care system receiving services from Columbia River Mental Health, and gives them a present for their birthday. Their main fundraiser, a fall fashion show presented by clothing boutique Willows, sold out and raised more than $45,000. Currie said she’s looking for a bigger venue for next year’s fashion show.

Donors have stepped up, offering a healthy supply of donations that volunteers refresh between each group of shoppers. About 2 to 5 percent of donations that are really soiled or broken beyond repair get thrown away. The Giving Closet has an in-house seamstress who makes minor clothing repairs.

The only things they’re running low on this time of year are warm coats and blankets. Also, volunteers are needed between 10 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Every couple of months, the Giving Closet holds a Saturday work session, too.

Flowers of Love

This year, the Giving Closet took on Flowers of Love, a new program that provides low-cost floral arrangements to families living below the poverty line.

Chris DiMarco used to be on the board of directors for the Giving Closet and heard stories about the financial burden clients faced who had a death in the family or were getting married.

“It’s just a significant hardship on the family,” DiMarco said. When organizing funerals, people already are feeling devastated before all of the added expenses. Weddings, too, are costly.

DiMarco and his wife, Jayne DiMarco, who’s a certified florist, own Darling Flowers by Jayne. They decided to launch the donation-based Flowers of Love earlier this year. The program was introduced at the Giving Closet fashion show, where the DiMarcos presented a dress made entirely of flowers.

“It was very well received at the benefit,” Chris DiMarco said.

DiMarco said 2015 was spent launching the program and figuring out how best to serve the community. When people donate materials to the Giving Closet that could be used in a floral arrangement — such as ribbon, vases and tulle — volunteers set them aside for Flowers of Love. Arrangements for weddings and funerals are put together and stored off-site. Prices are determined on a sliding scale.

The nonprofit partners with the Portland Flower Market to get fresh flower donations. The DiMarcos are open to working with Clark County gardeners and nurseries interested in donating live flowers.

Next year, the couple plans to serve more people and make Flowers of Love better known in the community. DiMarco recently did a presentation with Clark County Food Bank partners, where it was noted that there’s no other local nonprofit offering this kind of service.

“A lot of 2016 is going to be really busy,” DiMarco said.