WE WILL BE SORTING AT THE PORTALS III, on D STREET SW, BETWEEN 12TH AND 13TH STREETS, SW. Below is a map that shows the sorting site, as well as a site plan for the building that shows the entrance on D Street SW where we will be receiving all deliveries of clothing. Please drop off deliveries at the D Street entrance. It will be clearly marked. We will direct any large trucks to the loading dock at the rear of the building. Volunteers should also enter the building from D Street, SW.
Clothing Sorters & Distributors: On Saturday, December 2, the real heavy lifting begins. Volunteers dig in to the countless bags and boxes of donated clothing and separate them by gender and type of item. The donations are then bagged, labeled, and sorted, ready for delivery. While this is a time-consuming process, it is critically important in order to meet the stated needs of each of the shelters. At the same time, other volunteers deliver the donations to the shelters throughout town. The whole operation continues until the last bag is donated to the last shelter, usually late Sunday afternoon.
On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, volunteers are asked to sign up for one of the following four-hour time blocks: 8:30 - 12:30 am, 11:30 am - 3:30 pm, or 2:30 - 6:30 pm. However, we're happy to accomodate different volunteer scheduling requests...especially all day!! Breakfast and lunch are served on Saturday and Sunday. Also, children, accompanied by adults, are welcome. Friday afternnon might be a good time for a group of high school students who need to complete a community service requirement to volunteer. We also need lots of drivers to complete deliveries to all of the shelters we serve!
Firm Coordinator: The coordinators at each participating firm and organization are the real keys to our success. Beginning in late October, they publicize the drive: passing along information; soliciting clothing donations and volunteers; and obtaining monetary donations as well. The coordinators store the clothing donations until the Friday before the clothing drive. It is really amazing to see how the donations grow as the big weekend approaches. All the documents we provided to Firm Coordinators for 2005 (other than the Used Clothing Receipt) are available below. For a more detailed description of the Firm Coordinator position, click here.
