All clothing accepted, seven days a week

Volunteers from Cedar Springs R1TS 3 sort and hang up clothing donations for North Kent Community Services’ clients. (L to R: Zach Welch, Kevin Bradley, John Sabin)

Cleaning out your closets this spring? Donate your unwanted clothing to North Kent Community Services. It will all be put to good use, even those items with you might think are not wearable.

All clean clothing is accepted, even winter clothing, or items with bleach stains or tears. “The usable clothing is distributed to our clients in northern Kent County. We always have plenty of nice clothing for them,” explains Claire Guisfredi, NKCS Executive Director.

“In addition, we sell the stained and unusable clothes as rags or donate it to the West Michigan Archery Center for their targets. We also sell a very small quantity (two pallet boxes) a week to a resale shop; this is generally off-season clothing that we can’t store here. We use the proceeds to buy items we need, especially meat and cheese. This is a win-win for the donor, our clients and NKCS,” continued Guisfredi.

The donation area is kept clean and staffed every day. “In the past, we’ve struggled with NKCS being used as a dumping ground,” she explained. “To deter theft and to protect the items from being ruined from rain, the donation area is now being manned seven days a week so our wonderful supporters will feel confident in bringing their unwanted treasures to us.”

Please visit the NKCS website at www.nkcs.org for a complete list of acceptable items. NKCS is open Monday through Thursday, 8:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. Weekend hours vary. Drop off items at the south side of the building. Tax receipts are available.