The “Warm Winter Clothing Drive” was conducted by a new club, the SDG club (Sustainable Development Goals Club), dating back to January from the 20th to February 17th, calling people to donate acceptable clothes to the rack in the lobby or in the bin outside of B452. This was the club’s first activity with the purpose to “stand against fast fashion and help progress goals 11, 12, and 17 in Malden (sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, and partnerships for the goals).” The entire list of the Sustainable Development Goals can be found here.
When the donation drive started, not many people donated which made the drive not go as well as people anticipated. The president of the SDG club, Saia Hussain, expressed “we are hoping to spread the word for that… we definitely have a long way to go for it, but I think we can reach out and get the word out, then we will be able to get a lot more donations.” The situation changed just as Hussain wanted when close to the end of the second week, more people learned about the drive and donated their clothes.
In this era of fast fashion, people cycle through buying new clothes and quickly discarding them for the newest trend. Fast fashion satisfies the pleasure and wants of consumers and although this has its benefits for the short term, it leads to major environmental harm in the long term and contributes to wage oppression in other countries. The club connected these issues with their sustainable development goals in order to combat the problem in Malden. “This really prevents environmental waste and overall it also can benefit a lot to people who need the clothes,” said Hussain
With extreme weather and expensive products constantly on the mind of New Englanders, lower-income families can not always pay for these necessary clothing items. Clothing drives are a good solution to help people who are in these predicaments. “Overall, we really just have the intention of helping people and helping them have access to some items because most people do not have access to some resources,” Hussain noted.
Science teacher Kathy Maglio thinks a major positive about the donation is reducing people’s excess clothing and giving it to those who need them. Since the donations are donated anonymously, kids aren’t worrying about not expressing their needs, it lets them take clothes without people knowing it.
Hussain expressed the club might be sending some clothing to certain organizations after this donation. PACE students and the SDG club’s volunteers will cooperate in March to distribute the clothing. “We are going to have a boutique display of clothing for kids to come, so that will hopefully be fun as this can help the PACE kids develop some important life skills with the club,” said Maglio.
Following the current pace of wasted clothing, the environment is constantly destroyed and polluted by greenhouse gases the factories produce when making their clothing. The Earth needs these community organizations to rise up and protect it, especially with the current climate projections. In fact, some community groups are already acting silently, like the SDG club, who wish to change as much as they can to warm everyone and save our world. They know this donation is nowhere near what is needed to protect everyone, but they are still looking for any chance of improvement, discussing how to take their next step to combat such a large global issue.
