Photo by Julia Williams
Julia Williams
Editor-in-Chief
Clothes, Coffee and Community — three elements, which were in no shortage on Saturday, May 17 at PH Coffee (2200 Lexington Ave.) for the Pendleton Heights neighborhood’s first “Community Clothing Swap.”
After a two-month planning process, Pendleton Heights residents, Hannah Arredondo and her partner, Bobby Burch, along with three other core event volunteers, worked to set up tables and collapsible shelves on Saturday inside PH Coffee’s Social Gallery and extended onto its newly renovated outdoor patio space to hold women’s, men’s and children’s clothing, shoes and accessories.
Arredondo and event volunteers define a clothing swap as a free, community-led event, for neighbors to share gently-used clothes, shoes and accessories with no money or donation required, to participate.
While this was the first Clothing Swap for Pendleton Heights, Arredondo — who said she has volunteered in previous neighborhood events including PH Coffee’s “Meet Your Neighbor” nights — has participated in clothing swaps between her friends for the past several years.
“It’s a way to help financially, build community and meet your neighbor,” Arredondo said. “It’s a win-win-win across the board.”
The idea for turning a fun activity between friends into this neighborhood-wide event, she shared, sparked from a workshop, which was hosted at PH Coffee a couple months ago. Over three weekends, Jen Lacy (Doctorate in Psychology, education) — northeast resident and founder of American Daughters Academy, a local women empowerment organization — held a book study, where she defined and discussed the importance of mutual aid and ways to incorporate this concept into communities. Lacy is additionally in the process of creating “Pendleton Heights Community School,” which will offer a space for neighbors to continue having conversations.
Burch shared they estimated between 300 to 400 neighbors stopped by throughout the day on Saturday to participate in the event.
A team of around 20 total volunteers provided shopping bags for participants as well as mirrors and PH Coffee allowed attendees to utilize its restrooms to try on clothing items.
The “swap” aspect was just as it sounds. Guests could bring items in exchange for new ones brought in by their neighbors — with no money involved.
Neighbors were not required to bring in items to participate. While originally volunteers set a limit of 10 items per person, due to the volume of drop offs, they decided to remove this limitation — allowing participants to take as many items as they needed.
“There was so much donated from [Northeast] residents!” Burch shared in an email. “ It was great seeing families walk away with several full bags of clothes.”
Event organizers additionally accepted donations throughout the day — meaning community members could bring in items but were not required to take any in return.
An early drop-off was held at PH Coffee the weekend before, which allowed residents to bring in items for the clothing swap ahead of the event.
“The idea is for this to be a recurring [event], happening every spring and fall,” Arredondo said in an interview. “I would love to engage in different communities — hosting at Latinx Education Collaborative and [Quan Am Temple].”
Just across the street, Northeast Pizza offered a special throughout the day, which included “buy one, get one half off slices.”
In efforts to draw participants toward the event, Arredondo shared between herself and the Clothing Swap’s five core volunteers, the six worked to post a flyer on each home in Pendleton Heights and distribute the handouts to various locations throughout the community including the Housing Authority, 299 The Paseo.
“We [wanted] to make it as accessible to everyone as possible,” Arredondo said in an interview.
In terms of the event itself, she shared she was most excited about the community aspect and for neighbors to become acquainted.
“It’s not a charity; It’s a way of supporting the community and for the community to come together as neighbors and shop with each other.”
Another main objective for the clothing swap, Arredondo shared, is to offer an eco-friendly alternative, while making strides to combat fast-fashion craze.
“We’re shifting the mentality from needing to buy new, poorly-made clothing,” Arredondo said. “There’s clothing for everyone.”
Event organizers did have a couple of rules for participants to follow. These included ensuring donated items were washed and free of holes or stains.
Articles leftover from the clothing swap — which filled around 15 boxes — Arredondo shared, were donated to The Micah Ministry — an outreach mission within Independence Boulevard Christian Church, 606 Gladstone Ave., which provides a closet for unhoused individuals within the community — as well as Cherith Brook Catholic Worker House, 3226 E. 12th St.
Arredondo and Burch plan to host the next neighborhood clothing swap in October; A more precise date and location will be provided in the coming months.
While she shared there were a total of 20 volunteers for this clothing swap, the neighborhood hopes to incorporate a diverse range of volunteers and language options in the future.
For additional information on this Clothing Swap or on other events happening in Pendleton Heights, visit: https://www.facebook.com/events/1361151615305860?active_tab=about or https://phkc.org/.
