Community & Business
24 February, 2022
Donate clothes to help those in need
LOCALS considering throwing away their old clothes might want to think twice and, instead, help their community by donating unwanted goods to one of the many op shops dotted around the Tablelands.
Stores like the Salvation Army, Lifeline, Vinnies and the Australian Red Cross take donations from residents including clothes, bags, shoes, beds, furniture and even appliances to reuse or sell at a marked down price.
For these stores, money from sales goes directly back into helping the community through a variety of ways, including programs and even donating furniture for domestic violence victims.
The Salvation Army has two separate op shops operating on the Tablelands, one in Tolga and one in Herberton.
Nearly every item that is donated to these stores including clothes to furniture to appliances is all repurposed in one way or another.
Salvation Army Tablelands Corp Leader Miriam Newton-Gentle said brand new clothes even come in with the labels still on.
“The stores allow people to come in and purchase second-hand goods, sometimes it’s goods with labels still on – people buy them and don’t wear them for whatever reason,” she said.
“This allows people who are on a low income or people who may be more environmentally thinking to come in and purchase clothing and items at a lower price.
“Not all of the time are the items are suitable for us to put on the clothing rack, but we can salvage things from them. For example, we salvage all of the buttons and make rags out of cotton clothes and towels that cannot be reused.”
After covering the store costs, the Salvation Army uses the remaining money raised to provide services to the community in a variety of ways.
These can range from purchasing tents and sleeping bags, organising food parcels for people to have a hearty meal or even providing back-to-school supplies when needed.
“The money we make then goes into our community account and it gets used for food parcels, tents for homeless people, sleeping bags, community needs and more,” Ms Newton-Gentle said.
“It’s basically all pumped back into the community.”
St Vincent de Paul executive officer for Far North Queensland David Monaghan said that without their Vinnies stores, they would not be able to deliver services to the community.
“We have 13 retail outlets spread across the far north and the donations that we get through and the money that we earn out of the donations and through these outlets is about 80 per cent of our income,” he said.
“Whatever money is made in Far North Queensland goes back out into the Far North Queensland community.
“We have various programs running, we have emergency relief, drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence, however the majority of our work is in homelessness.”
St Vincent de Paul has support houses around the region for people to utilise or they can assist in subsiding rents, however, without the money from their stores these programs would cease to exist.
“Anyone that’s donating can be assured that their money is going to a fantastic cause within the Far North Queensland community,” Mr Monaghan said.
“We are extremely appreciative of any and all donations. In fact, the volumes that have been coming through post-Christmas and through Covid have increased.
“The donations come through daily – furniture is an area that we really need even more than clothing in this point in time.”
Vinnies will often recycle the donated furniture to those in need, whether they have needed to flee their home due to domestic violence or are below the poverty line and need a bed and other items.
The Seconds Shop in Mareeba run by Tablelands Animal Rescue Inc. also uses their donations to help others and assist the community, however more focused on four legged friends.
The organisation assists with rehoming, desexing’s, vet expenses and more for the animals in their care before they find their forever homes.
While these stores are highly valued across the Tablelands the volunteers who run them are invaluable and currently their numbers are lower than ever and dwindling.
If you have some spare time and would like to make a good change in your community volunteer at one of your local op shops.
