Aberdeen charity asks people to spring clean their wardrobes for Earth Day

A local homelessness charity is asking people across the North-east to sort through their clothes – and put these aside for their projects supporting homeless people.

Aberdeen Cyrenians already collects clothing for their vulnerable service users, and has plans to launch a new, online charity shop later this year.

In recent weeks, they’ve seen demand for clothing accelerate as coronavirus has prevented their service users from being able to access their laundry facilities and other second hand clothing stores.

Now, they are encouraging people to go through their wardrobes on Wednesday 22 April (Earth Day) and donate their preloved clothing to the charity when they return to accepting clothing donations following the COVID-19 outbreak.
Bryony Shepherd, community and events fundraiser, said:

"We already collect preloved clothing and footwear from members of the community to give out to our service users and have seen increased demand during this lockdown, but, unfortunately, we can’t take donations to restock at this time.

"We rely completely on the amazing generosity of the public to operate our clothing service, and will be sorely in need of clothes for this once lockdown is lifted, but, sometimes, we cannot use all the items which are donated.

"We often have to recycle much good quality workwear and evening wear because we don’t have much need for these items within our service user groups.

"We wanted to do something to use our donated clothing much more sustainably, and our new, online charity shop will help us give a new lease of life to these unwanted clothes, and help support our services for those who are homeless or in crisis".

Last year, Aberdeen Cyrenians had around £40,000 worth of clothing donated. Bryony Shepherd said:

"We’d love to see people clearing out their wardrobes on Earth Day to give us a head start for the online shop – AC Wardrobe – and are looking for good quality workwear, evening wear, footwear, accessories and vintage pieces, in a variety of sizes, styles and genders.

"Due to the current lockdown, we’re unable to accept donations at our head office, but it would be great if people could pop stuff aside for us now, sign up for updates on the project via our website, and then their donations can be dropped off and collected in the future".

To find out more about AC Wardrobe and sign up for updates: https://www.aberdeen-cyrenians.org/acwardrobe

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