Clothing Bins Benefit Both Community and Students
The Dallastown Life Skills class has a critical role in the journey of clothing donated to the Community Aid bins on campus.
Four of the life skills students working together to sort the bags of donated clothes, toys, and other goods. Once the bags are sorted, the items will be packaged and sent to the local Community Aid store.
People love shopping.
In fact, with thrift shopping being all the rage, some people visit their local Community Aid stores weekly and browse the selection the store has accrued in recent days.
What many don’t know is that there is a lot more to that collection journey than the clothes magically appearing on the racks.
For seven years, people have been dropping off clothes in the Community Aid bin at DHS.
For the clothes inside that bin to make it to our local Community Aid store, there are a few steps that need to take place first.
Students in Dallastown’s Life Skills class are a critical part of this process.
Life skills students received training with the Community Aid workers to learn how to correctly sort the clothing. My goal is that some of the kids will end up working there. It’s a fabulous place to work, and the people are great. — Mr. Keith Dyke
The clothing is brought into their classroom and then sorted into what is salvageable and good to donate and what is not.
“The kids have gone a little farther; they now sort the clothes into adult and kids. They’ve kind of taken it to a whole new level, which is cool because that was all on their own,” Mr. Dyke, the Supervisor of Social and Student Services at Dallastown said.
The process of sorting the clothes includes many steps.
The class first sorts the clothes based on different classifications before putting them into garbage bags. Then, they help load the bags into Dyke’s truck before he drives them to the Community Aid store, and they are recorded as a Dallastown donation.
The DASD partnership with Community Aid is beneficial in several ways.
First DASD qualifies for $1200 in Community Aid gift cards each quarter. These cards can be distributed to families in need.
Second, Dallastown receives $0.04 per pound of clothing from bins at the Ore Valley and Intermediate School campuses, and $0.06 per pound from the sorted clothes from the high school bin. The money earned is deposited into the DASD Caring and Sharing Fund and is used to support DASD students in need.
Additionally, the students in the Life Skills class learn how to sort clothing and maintain a weekly job that they are responsible for.
“It makes me feel happy because I’m helping out,” claimed student Christian M.
The class benefits from more than solely completing the job, but also from the fulfillment of helping others and enjoying the act of service.
“It helps them prepare for future job opportunities that may arise for them after they graduate high school. It serves as a transition skill that helps my students learn how to follow rules and directions,” stated Ms. Wolfe, the Life Skills teacher.
According to Dyke and Wolfe, this weekly responsibility does not just benefit the students in the present, but in the future too.
“My goal is that some of the kids will end up working there. It’s a fabulous place to work, and the people are great,” Dyke said.
Learning how to sort the clothes facilitates the students’ overall learning process and gives them an advantage if they were to get a job at Community Aid in the future.
To some people, clothes are simply that: clothes. But to Dallastown, clothing donations are much more than that; they are a doorway to success.
Your donation will support the student journalists of Dallastown Area High School. Your contribution will allow us to purchase equipment and cover our annual website hosting costs.
