Clothing Stash worker Sareya Nicholson verifies student Liberty Mauch’s allotment. Photo by Victoria Stephens / The Torch
After a bit of a wait, the No Cash Clothing Stash has officially re-opened for business, albeit in a new location. The Stash moved from its previous location on the third floor of Building 5 to the downstairs of Building 12.
During the Building 5 construction last year, a staircase wasn’t built up to the third floor front entrance where the Stash had been located. It would have been a fire hazard to only have one way out through the back exit, manager Kaitlin Carney said.
She told ASLCC if they just gave her a closet and a desk she could make a clothing stash.
“Luckily the space is bigger than that,” she said.
Although it is smaller than its former digs in Building 5, the Stash has space for a dressing room behind a curtain. The only space that Student Life and Leadership could find was in Building 12. In fact, it is a sectioned off part of a hallway downstairs.
Usually, about 50 people a day come in. Most take two or three items but can take up to five items daily, free of charge.
“We’re always looking for people to come and check us out. It’s such a great resource,” Carney said,” I love the whole idea of it. We’re all on tight budgets.”
The Stash is a non-profit organization. Although it is a school organization, similar to a club, it is run mainly on donations from students and donations from area stores. Student workers are either on work-study or are cooperative education students, primarily from human services or other social science majors.
Carney wishes to go into non-profit management and considers the Stash a good experience for her.
The organization gets $100 in aid through student government for supplies. Carney said the organization seldom uses much of that, as costs are low for what is needed beyond donations. Financial aid pays student wages for work-study students. The Stash has been in operation on campus for about 20 years.
“We get clothing from all over. You just literally walk in and pick five items. There is no paperwork to fill out, no fee, no L number required,” Norm Kevern, a work-study employee of the Stash said.
There is clothing and shoes for both men and women available along with occasional accessories and small household items such as sheets or bedding.
The service is completely free.
Sareya Nicholson is another work-study student employed by the Stash. She has been working there for two years.
“We constantly have a revolving door of clothes people bring things in and take things out and the process starts all over again,” she said. “It’s fun. There’s lots of new people and getting to help people and that’s great.”
She wants to encourage students to come back because there are new donations all the time.
“Anytime someone could walk in with a load of new clothes,” she said.
The Stash gets weekly donations generally from three stores along with a couple of large garbage bags full of new clothing.
Clothing usually comes from Wal-Mart and the Clothing Exchange. In the past it has come from Target, Deluxe and Buffalo Exchange.
Besides new clothing from stores in the area, donations of several bags per day are made by students and faculty. The Stash also receives leftover clothing from the gym lockers at the end of the term and from Public Safety’s lost and found once a term.
“It feels good to look good,” Nicholson said. “We’re giving away confidence.”
Donations are always accepted.
Generally the Stash is open Monday through Friday 10 a.m.-4 p.m. with slight variations.
