Cheap prices and an environmentally friendly approach are just a few reasons members of Thrift Club enjoy thrifting. But one other reason is just as prevalent: it’s fun. Advised by H2O coordinators Mrs. Hutchison and Mrs. Chodzin, Ms. Sabin, and sophomore Violet Gonzalez, Thrift Club aims to explore the environmental impacts of textiles in a fun, creative, and hands-on way.

The club was initially inspired by H2O’s Clothing Drive, the flagship event of H2O’s summer camp. In this event, campers collect clothing donations from community members and organize them into a big one-day sale. The purpose of the sale is to learn not only about the importance of providing affordable clothing to people but also about textiles’ impact on the environment. The clothing drive also drew in members of the community.

“I didn’t think of it until we were about an hour into the clothing drive sale, but I decided to start photographing all of our alums who came to the event,” Hutchison said. “It was a bunch, and it was so fun.”

Noticing the tremendous community involvement from the clothing drive, Hutchison recognized an interest in similar events and activities. However, she wasn’t sure she could maintain the momentum even with the interest. After the drive ended, however, Gonzalez expressed further interest in the concept to Hutchison, inspiring the club’s creation.

“A lot of the times it feels like you can’t do anything about climate change,” Gonzalez said. “Fast fashion is a big part of that, so it’s nice to be able to do something small to help with that.”

Being thrifty doesn’t always mean going to a thrift store and picking out a shirt or a pair of jeans at a reduced price. Oftentimes, it can be as simple as mending a worn-down article of clothing or repurposing something you already have into something new. One of Thrift Club’s advisors, art teacher Ms. Sabin, works firsthand with these skills and teaches them to students in one of her classes.

“I teach a class called Fiber Arts, and anyone who wants to learn how to sew on a machine can in that class,” Sabin said. “Then it becomes known that Ms. Sabin can fix whatever, and then [it gets] students to be willing to try to fix their items, too.”

“My hope is that anything we do just carries on without us, that it’s not something that we have to make happen,” Sabin said.

Since Thrift Club aims to incorporate learning into its activities, a few field trips were proposed during a recent meeting. One was to tour local fashion designer Aidan Meany and his business Found Surface to witness sustainable and local clothing manufacturing. Another was to visit the Upcycle Parts Shop and attend one of their Craft Cafes. Of course, to put the ‘thrift’ in Thrift Club, the club also plans to visit thrift stores to get project materials.

Thrift Club is geared toward student engagement and is always looking for new directions based on students’ interests and skills. This engagement supports the club’s goal to have a lasting impact on the students involved, as it allows them to use the skills they want to learn. Each advisor, and likely each participant, has their own vision of what they want to come out of Thrift Club.

“I think…maybe collaborating with other groups,” Chodzin said.

“We could get adept at making things that we [can] sell or gift to the community,” Hutchinson said.

If you’re interested in learning more about textiles and their impact on the environment, getting involved with one of Thrift Club’s possible trips, or are simply interested in having fun and creating, stop by Thrift Club’s next meeting on Wednesday, November 13th in room B208 after school. The meeting’s theme is mending, so if there’s something you would like to repair or add a little bit of flair to, bring it to the meeting. Or if you can’t make it, join the Google Classroom with code 76wmxks to keep track of updates for future meetings.

“[I want people to] learn that they can grip and mend things and reuse them so that’s something they can keep in mind moving forward,” Gonzalez said.

Looking to thrift on your own? Check out a couple of these stores:
Savers,  Value World Lakewood,  Common Threads
Or, if you’re looking to shop small, check out these local thrift/vintage stores:
Flower Child Vintage,   Uncover Vintage,  Future No Future Vintage,  Christ Child Society, Highland Throwbacks