Clothes are so expensive nowadays, but there is still a way for you to get your hands on some nice cheap clothes. Londonderry High School’s Green Council has put together a new event, the Thrift Fair, that will be held on Saturday February 26, 2022 from 10 am to 2 pm. There will be an ample amount of clothes for everybody of all ages.
Green Council President, junior Sean O’Mara, has worked together with the rest of the club members, to create an inexpensive event to put on for Londonderry and other towns.
“We’ve spent the past two months collecting used clothes from around Londonderry to sell them,” O’Mara said.
Not only is the Green Council already helping the community by selling these clothes, they are also giving the profits to a charity in need.
“We’ll be selling used clothes for five dollars or less and 75 percent of our profits will be going to the New Horizons soup kitchen to help fund their greenhouse,” O’Mara said. “Any clothes that we don’t manage to sell will be donated to local clothes drives.”
Along with donating profit, there are many other components to the Green Council such as spreading awareness and taking action.
“The thrift fair did a great job of incorporating those two components,” O’Mara said. “It was also a nice opportunity to get the community involved with our projects.”
Although everyone in the club was on board with the thrift fair, the original idea came from the Green Council co-Vice President junior Arianna Soucy.
“We had a big meeting dedicated to brainstorming ideas for projects and she brought it up,” O’Mara said. “It was something really creative that does a great job involving the community and promoting reusability.”
O’Mara is so excited to put a new event on and to help bring the community, as well as Green Council Secretary junior Makenna True. They want to bring surrounding communities together and to make a difference. Both O’Mara and True are amazed at what their new club has accomplished in a short amount of time.
“I am just really proud that the club was able to come together and create something so big,” O’Mara said. “We’ve estimated that we’ve received over a thousand donations. Of course I’m nervous that maybe the fair itself won’t have a huge turnout, but I’m staying positive. At the very least we’ve prevented a lot of clothes from ending up in a landfill.”
True and O’Mara are both thinking the same way when it comes to the turnout of the fair.
“I am really excited for the event,” True said. “We are hoping for a big turn out, but since it is the first year we are putting on the Thrift Fair, we will be just as happy for a small turn out.”
The event is just starting this year, but it is well planned and the Green Council is putting out the invitation to all who want to enjoy the day at the fair.
“We collect old clothes from Londonderry and have locations at the high school, the middle school, all the elementary schools, and one at the town hall,” O’Mara said. “Everybody can give their donations and we sort the clothes and sell them.”
With all the excitement of a new event, True and O’Mara don’t exactly know what to expect for the first run of the Thrift Fair, but they are definitely hoping to have a great time.
“I want the Thrift Fair to be able to help out people that need cheap clothes in a pinch, and to also just help out the environment by not putting good clothes to waste,” True said. “That is what we are doing this for.”
O’Mara is in hopes of spreading awareness towards not wasting clothes and to help people understand that you don’t have to simply throw away clothes that you don’t want.
“I’m hoping that the fair reminds people to be less wasteful,” O’Mara said. “We’re going to have tables absolutely covered in clothes and I think it will serve as a great visual of just how much waste people produce from just one small facet of our lives. I’m also hoping that it gives people who maybe have less money to spend on clothes an opportunity to get clothing at a cheap cost.”
