On Sunday, March 30, the Winona State University organization called Dream Closet held their biannual Pop-Up Closet event in Talbot Gym on campus. Throughout the semester, the club accepts clothing donations, then sorts them with the help of volunteers to create a completely free shopping event for college students and community members.
Amber Dunlap and Kendall Doten are both second-year nursing majors and in addtion they are also the Dream Closet club leaders. They take on the responsibility of coordinating and organizing this event.
The club collects donations of clothing from students, community members, and local stores to supply the event with a wide variety of sizes and types of clothing. Since the clothing was donated freely, the club can make the shopping event completely free for everyone who attends.
“No questions are asked,” Doten says. “There’s no guilt or shame of coming here. There’s no judgment. You just get what you need, and we don’t ask any questions at all. We also help find clothes for people. No limit on what you take. We’ll help get it in your car if that’s what you need.”
While the event takes place on campus, it is largely attended by Winona community members.
“[The purpose of this event is] giving back to people who are financially in scarcity, and just the community in general,” Dunlap said. “Winona is a community-based college in the first place so, these people help us have a school, so we give back.”
This event truly has a large impact on the Winona community. Last semester, Dunlap mentioned that families who had moved from flooding areas in Florida came to the event.
“They had no winter jackets, they had nothing. We gave them a box of hangers for all their clothes and all new wardrobes, everything. And it’s just nice because it does get cold here.” Dunlap said.
Doten stresses the need for more volunteers for the events, saying that without volunteers, it takes much longer and is harder to put on the event.
“Just getting volunteers actually has been slowly harder to have. It’s been decreasing over the course of the year. And the less volunteers, the more time it takes to—we pre-sort everything for a month before the event,” Doten said. “When you have less volunteers, it’s harder to do that and harder to keep people coming back because they don’t want to be here for hours on end.”
However, Doten recommends volunteering for this event to anyone and everyone, saying that it is worth the work.
“It feels good,” Doten said. “When you see someone leave with bags of clothes and you’re like, ‘I know you’re not going to be on the street freezing cold in a sweatshirt’. It feels good to know that. Or in jeans and a sweatshirt because that’s all you have for the summer, when it’s 90 degrees and you’re having a heat stroke. It’s just nice to know that we can give them all of that, the different opportunities that they’ll need.”
This event has a far-reaching impact on the campus of Winona State as well as in the greater Winona community. To keep this event going, volunteers continue the work of gathering donations, sorting clothes, and working the event itself. Consider volunteering for Dream Closet to give back to the community that so fervently supports Winona State.
