Your son’s scout group adopted a family and purchased gifts for them. Your daughter’s high school home room collected money to buy groceries for a family that just lost their father. Your husband’s office spent last Saturday serving meals at a local soup kitchen. You have been going through every closet and dresser drawer in the house, looking for items that you can have ready for the Red Cross clothing pick up truck scheduled for next week.

This is the time of year when both individuals and groups contribute to the needs of others. School classrooms work together to help families that otherwise might not have gifts. Churches collect and distribute new wrapped toys for local hospitals. Mothers take time to prepare boxes filled with items that can be given to scheduled Red Cross clothing pick ups.

Used Clothing Donations Offer a Number of Advantages to Many People in Great Need

When you make the decision to gift new and used clothes donations, you are making the decision to make the difference in the life of many. That one dresser drawer that you can hardly close because it is filled with sweaters that you no longer wear, for instance, could help keep a single mother warm or give a new high school graduate something to wear for a job interview. Stuffed in your drawer, on the other hand, those sweaters are only annoying when you bang your leg on the drawer that extends beyond the dresser.

Consider these facts and figures about the many ways that Americans give to those who are less fortunate:

• 564,708 people were homeless in the U.S. on the night of January 2015. Many of these people could benefit from the donation of clothing.
• The American Red Cross provides relief for families and communities in the form of blankets, food, blood and shelter 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
• 63% of high net worth donors indicate that giving back to the community is a chief motivation for giving.
• 70% of people in the U.S. give to charity every year.
• 3% of income in America is given to charities each year.
• Americans throw away an average of 10 pounds of clothes a person each year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Many of these items could have been put to a far better use.

When was the last time that you donated clothing items to a group that helps those who are in need? That simple decision to donate clothing can have a ripple effect that you likely would not imagine. One warm coat, for instance, might allow a father to stand in line for a temporary job assignment that can feed his family for a week. Those warm boots that your teenage daughter refuses to wear could allow another girl to enjoy recess at school with her friends. American Red Cross clothing pick up services offer help to both families and individuals who can benefit from those of us who make the decision to donate clothes, household items, and monetary gifts.