MAKING A DIFFERENCE, ONE OUTFIT AT A TIME

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Tessa Shane. Read her story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.

When Tessa Shane talks to people, they often tell her they don’t know where to donate their clothes. However, she has the perfect answer. A 17-year-old high school student, Tessa used to be really into sports. After a bad back injury sidelined her, Tessa found herself with a lot more time on her hands. Looking to get involved with volunteer work, she wanted to use her independent spirit and love of fashion to create something of her own. She got involved with Hoodies for the Homeless, a sweatshirt-collection organization that offered her the opportunity to spearhead their initiative in her home state of Michigan.

Soon, Tessa realized that maybe the potential to establish her own organization wasn’t so unrealistic. She formed The Donation Closet, an organization that collects new and gently used clothing for men, women and kids. Tessa uses her parents’ basement as a drop-off location for used clothing, where neighbors and local residents can bring items they no longer want to wear and feel good knowing they can go to someone who will wear it proudly. Tessa sorts through each of the items and organizes them on clothing racks to create a makeshift store of her own.

Each month, she partners with one to two local organizations that need clothing, pulling the appropriate sizes, bagging and delivering the items. Thus far, Tessa has collected over 9,000 items of clothing via donations, partnering with everyone from social media influencers and Girl Scout troops to public school community service officers and her own family members. Whoever Tessa comes into contact with, she shares her message of generosity and encourages others to volunteer, too.

While Tessa has a busy school workload and is preparing to go to college next year, she dedicates 30 to 40 hours per month to The Donation Closet. But her time helping others find comfortable clothing to wear is hardly coming to an end. No matter where she ends up studying next year, Tessa hopes to establish a new branch of the Donation Closet, encouraging sustainability and helping others find the resources they need. Her willingness to help others wherever she goes is a beautiful example of volunteerism.

What inspired you to get started with this initiative?

I was looking to get involved. I wanted to do something, but I wanted to do something on my own. I’ve always been interested in fashion, and I’ve been interested in helping out in any way that I can. I found this organization, based in New Jersey, called Hoodies for the Homeless. I reached out to them because I noticed that they didn’t have a Michigan chapter, and they offered for me to launch it. I ended up doing a few big donation collections, and they ended up being really successful. As a result, people were dropping off clothing at my house. We were getting inundated with stuff, and we didn’t really know where to put it.

I asked my parents if I could move some of the furniture around in our basement. I got on Facebook Marketplace, and would find places closing and ask for free racks to set up a store in my basement. I was getting stuff for summer and kids, and I thought I could do something bigger. I came up with the idea for The Donation Closet, and I put out there that I was going to partner with different local nonprofits every month. I started building really good relationships with local nonprofits. A lot of them were foster care places, so they would tell me what clothing they needed for each season. At the same time, people were dropping off clothing at my house. Each month, I would go into my basement and curate and pull exactly what they needed.

Tell us about your volunteer role with The Donation Closet.

I take the work out of it for people. I do the legwork of figuring out what local organizations need. They can just drop clothing off and know that it will find a home. In the summer, I have an Instagram page. I figure out who I’m going to partner with for the coming month, and then I post something and announce it. I even have a really cute elementary school that I went to that had a Girl Scout troop that wanted to do something for the holidays, so they collected over 700 pieces of clothing for us to go towards this.

What are your long-term plans or goals for the organization?

I’m going off to college at the end of the summer. I anticipate that I’m going to have inventory left over, so I want to have a high school student carry it on locally here. Wherever I end up in college, I’d like to try to do something similar, whether it’s a space that I can find that’s sponsored, or it’s the same idea, where we can work with local organizations and do The Donation Closet in that particular college town.

What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?

Probably meeting the families that we’ve helped. We had some families that we helped when the L.A. wildfires happened who had some sort of connection to Michigan, and we pulled a bunch of clothes for them. I think it’s hearing from them and them thanking me, and just acknowledging that we were able to help. I think the most rewarding thing is knowing that I helped somebody.

What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?

Two things. One is that I’ve learned a lot about the nonprofit world, whether it’s starting one or working with them. As a volunteer, I’ve seen how much the people who work for these different organizations care about the work they’re doing. I feel like everything started with a really simple idea, and I wanted to do something to help somebody. I saw different opportunities as they presented themselves. I feel like with volunteering, things can take different terms, in the best way possible, where you just meet different people on your path. I ended up learning through volunteering that I actually liked a lot of the inner workings of how to build a nonprofit.

Why is it important for others to get involved with causes they care about?

Especially as a teenager and being in high school, we spend a lot of time in classes. When you volunteer and do something outside of a school, you’re exposing yourself to so much more in the world. I’ve learned so much just by volunteering and doing what I’m doing. I think it’s important for people to step out of their comfort zone and just explore things. I feel like my time is more focused on important stuff, and it just feels more meaningful.

Any advice for people who want to start volunteering?

Do your own research in your local community. Some people might find that they’re more drawn to working with the elderly, or somebody wants to do something to help with gardening. It’s really as easy as Googling and asking what organizations are nearby. If you go on their website, there are so many of them that are looking for help. Every time I’ve reached out to somebody, they’ve been so happy and excited that a young person wants to help. I think it’s just taking that first step.

What do you want people to learn from your story?

I think that you can do a lot in high school. A lot of people think that you have to do things one way, like you have to join a club that’s just at your school, or you have to join a sports team. But there are so many other different ways that you can learn and grow and feel like you know you’re making a difference. I think a lot of it, at least for me, was just getting creative and trusting myself. So I think people just have to trust that there are other things to do outside. With high school students, that’s outside of their school walls. Trust yourself and take the steps and reach out to people.

Do you want to make a difference in your community like Tessa? Find local volunteer opportunities.