July's WW10: How to give your gently-worn clothes a meaningful second life

My best friend Tiffany is on staff at the Central Indiana Teen Challenge, a faith-based rehab center. Its always refreshing to hear about her job whenever we catch up, since our lives are so different. I'm a web designer, spending my days pushing pixels in New York City, while she's changing the lives of young girls, helping bring restoration and healing to the center she works and lives at in Indiana.

Central Indiana Teen Challenge is a nonprofit residential organization which ministers to girls of the 13-17 age range with at risk behaviors*. They currently have students from all across the United States and offer 12-month boarding services for teen girls struggling with life-controlling addictions.

Its a place to heal in a safe environment, and a place of second chances for these girls. For many of them, this has become a last resort for them to find true freedom for their lives.

Tiffany mentioned recently how their center is completely run on donations, whether it be monetary, food, or clothing. She told me that they get clothing donations, but usually when they rummage through the stuff, its old, smelly, and not very trendy.

I thought of all the clothes in my closet that I don't wear and are in pretty good condition and could definitely have another go. So I went around gathering clothes from my friends, who like me, often overshop and not wear enough of what's in our closet.

I ended up dropping off to Tiff about 6 large bags of clothing. Most of the clothes were in good condition, some even had the tags still on them. This was a simple act, something that didn't really take much planning or head space, something I just decided to do on a whim. I had no idea how much of an impact it would have. So I was pleasantly surprised by this email I received that week:

(excerpts of Tiffany's email to me)

"I am writing to THANK YOU for your generosity on Friday! Wow! I hope you can send this along to your other friends...

...When I got home on Friday night i stayed up till 1:30am sorting through the clothes- because I was so excited! I then put them in piles accordingly and spread them across the hallway on Saturday morning- so the girls could go through and "SHOP".

Many of the girls don't get a chance to get out and buy new clothes because they are stuck within these walls for some - time- and when they do get a day to be with their parents or guardians families often don't have a lot of money to buy lots of new things because they are paying for a hotel/ activities for the day or even just plain it's difficult for them to even make due with tuition for Teen Challenge Center that month.

I allowed the girls to go through in groups of 2-3 and pick 3 items to start with and then come back again and chose more until most of the clothes were picked through. They were so excited!! Trying things on- asking "how does this look, Tiffany".

Since we have a rule that anything that comes through the house has to be washed before worn- many of the girls asked if they could put their new "dress/ or pants/ or shirt" in the wash so they could wear it the next day to church. I put them in all together. SO FUN!!

I am so thankful for what a blessing this was not only for me to witness but also to the girls...

...GIVING is such a beautiful thing- it goes on and on and on and never stops! Many of the girls afterwards were coming up to me giving me things "they dont' wear" or what has gotten too small for them while they have been here and asked if they could donate it to the caring center down the road for homeless. AWESOME! See it continues on!"

After reading this email and seeing the photos of the girls Tiffany sent along with it, my friends and I all agree that we are the ones that were the most blessed by this donation. As one of my friends wrote back to me, "this email has just made my day!"

I think sometimes we don't know how the little things in life, the small acts, can actually make a big difference. I loved hearing from Tiffany how the giving was continuing, with the girls wanting to give some of their stuff to the homeless center down the road.

So along the theme of giving (and of course clothing!), it only seemed fitting that W&W's July WW10 donation would go to Teen Challenge. A portion of our proceeds from July will be going to support the great work Tiffany and her staff are doing at Central Indiana Teen Challenge.

If you would like more information about Teen Challenge and how you too can donate, contact them through their website or through Miss Tiffany herself at tiffann.fischer@gmail.com

If you are in the New York City area, some other places that I've donated my clothes to include Housing Works, an organization that combats AIDs and homelessness, and of course, the Salvation Army.

*At Risk Behaviors = Bulimia, Cutting, Alcohol and Substance abuse, physical/sexual abuse, depression, anger, manipulation, lying, rebellion, promiscuity, or poor self image.

All orders will ship out July 30

A note to all our lovely customers:

W&W has gotten summer vacay fever, and we'll be going on the road this week. (London & Mexico here we come!)

All orders this week will ship out on July 30.

Thank you for your patience. We'll see you when we get back!

Other Photo Shoot Faves

When clothes are flying around, cameras are snapping madly and people are on no more than 5 hours of sleep it really helps when everyone is witty and our new inventory is super cute.



Favorite quotes from our weekend:

Buki: "I wonder if we can start buying stuff before we launch it."

Kelly: "Everyday is a blog blessing."
~We def think everyday is a blessing in and out of blogs!

Fashion Forward Friday's Sneak Peak

For our Fashion Forward Friday post, we're giving you a sneak preview of our new collection. Here are some exclusive photos from our latest shoot, with a few special cameos from unexpected guests!

When shooting on a busy Saturday on the streets of Chelsea, you are bound to have some characters walk across your set. Here are a few that we captured:

This man in his awesome plaid pants kindly agreed to pose with us, but only after he had dropped off his laundry across the street.

Hope these photos got you excited for whats to come! Keep on the look out... we will be adding new merchandise to the ww-shop next week!

June's W&W10

It's the first of the month...Time to celebrate the month that has just been, all that we're looking forward to (around here that's a lot) and W&W10!

Starting a business can be tough, but we realize how much we like it when we get to decide how to run the show and what to do with our bottom line. Part of that is making sure we give back because we feel like we've been given to, and every first of the month we're glad to do so. We're happy we can make you a part of that, especially when the recipients are organizations we volunteer with and feel passionately about. So don't be too surprised when we tell you all of our team has or will be volunteering with non-profits this summer on varying levels from admin work, trips within America (Buki) and crossing international borders (Nancy-Mexico and Hee Kyung to Brazil).

For this month, we've decided to really give back to the organizations we feel have given more in return than we could ever contribute as we've volunteered with them.

Presenting:

Hands & Feet Ministries through the eyes and ears of Nancy:

Every summer my church partners with Hands and Feet Ministries in Piedras Negras, Mexico. They connect teams visiting their locations in New Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Mexico (Piedras Negras and Nava, Coahuila) to different avenues of community outreach, among them construction, medical, education, evangelism and vacation Bible study. I go every summer to be removed from the city, to step into something unfamiliar, and be immersed in the love God has for the less fortunate.

The Rock Student Ministries as experienced by Buki:

Every year The Rock takes students on a trip to spend sometime away from the students' normal environments and focus a week on getting to know who God is. The goal of the trip was to review our lives(students and leaders), look at our everyday issues, problems,circumstances (good or bad) and know that we can still be joyful because of who Jesus is to us not what is happening to us. John 16:21-22, Colossians 1:29. I go because I remember what it was like to be a teenager in high school, with little time to myself and a plethora of influences around me. I found it difficult to understand my purpose in life, or situations I was going through and find people to talk to besides my family that cared for me. In 10th grade I re-discovered Jesus cared for me through the mentoring of a leader and a small group of girls in my church. I want to be there for teens just like Wendy (the leader ) was for me.

For W&W10, Jill over and out. Got any great organizations we should know about. Shoot me an email! Jill@thewiseandwearfores.com