Our First Clients

Greetings Friends! I hope everyone is staying well. Continuing on with the early days of our new program. In mid January, I received a call from our first client who needed clothing for his upcoming job interview. I ended up getting a second call from another client, so I had 2 appointments for the first day. I was nervous and excited. I didn't have a ton of clothes or shoes, so I was hoping so badly that the guys fit into what I had. It would have been very disappointing if they couldn't fit into anything.

The appointments went great. Both guys found clothes that they needed and they were very happy. The first guy was going for an interview for a construction union job. He was nervous at first, but relaxed as he started trying on clothes. He wanted to wear jeans for the interview, but wanted to get a blazer, shirt, tie and dress shoes. He looked great and he especially loved the shoes. They were brand new Red Wing steel toe black work shoes. I tried to suggest he get dress pants too, but he really wanted to wear his jeans for the interview. The outfit looked great and even though he was wearing jeans, he still looked professional for his interview.

It was so amazing to see the transformation that happened when the men put on professional clothing. They stood taller, their head held higher and they smiled. The look of confidence was remarkable. The guys know how good they feel. They are happy to see their own transformation in the mirror. All of them have been so thankful and appreciate, it has been really touching.

As the weeks went by, we got more and more clients coming in for interview clothing. I worked on outreach to various programs and services across the Boston area to share our new program and I was met with lots of positive feedback from the agencies that I reached out to. They said there was such a need for the program. I reached out to job training programs, rehabilitation programs, DTA and other social services groups. We also partnered with a hospitality industry job training program and were able to outfit men who were about to complete the intensive program and were ready for interviews.

A number of the clients coming in over the months were recovering from addiction. They spanned a variety of ages and backgrounds. When I meet the guys who are in recovery, I can't help but think that they are in some ways, the lucky ones because they have made it through. Every time I meet them, I think of all the men and women who haven't survived addiction. It is heartbreakingly sad. When I help them find their clothing, I keep hoping to myself that they are able to stay on a good path and beat the disease. You see their smiles and joy when they look in the mirror and it is really touching.

For myself, I never imagined how much joy I could feel doing this program. I feel so happy when the guys put on the perfect suit that I literally clap my hands. It is wonderful to see the direct impact of our work and it is amazing to be able to see how happy the guys are in their new clothing. My wish with this program is to help level the playing field. For many of us, having an interview appropriate outfit in the closet is taken for granted. But for many others, it isn't that way. No one should be judged badly because they couldn't afford to buy the right clothes to wear for an interview. It's not fair.

Here are a few before and after photos of some of the clients that have to come our program since it started.

The Story Continues

Hi Friends, hope everyone is staying well. Continuing on with the story of our new program, Suits & Smiles which provides men in need with job interview and work attire. December came and we finally moved into our new space. Now, I needed clothing, shoes and volunteers. I started reaching out again to people that had previously offered clothing donations. I also really needed rolling racks. From the beginning, I wanted to make sure that our space would always be neat and organized. It was important They are very expensive to buy, particularly good quality ones. I reached out to a friend, Zena, who sells LuLaRoe clothing in Grafton. She has been so supportive of our work and had offered to help with racks before. Zena gave me 2 great rolling racks and set up a FB group with other LuLaRoe reps who were looking to downsize their rolling rack collection. I ended up getting a bunch of heavy duty racks for super cheap- $25 for double racks and $15 for singles.

I also reached out to a lady named Corlis who runs a clothing collaborative, Clothes To Go from a church in North Attleboro. She had read the article about our program in last year's Milford Daily News and had reached out wanting to help with getting me the donations of men's business clothing that she had. We chatted on the phone and I was happy to hear that all of the items she had were already sorted. It makes such a difference to receive donations of items that have been sorted already. She said I come and take what I needed. She has been running her organization for many years and has donated over 2 million pounds of clothing to homeless people, low income families and other charities helping people in need. She was a bundle of energy and really a delight to meet. I picked up a trunk full of great quality items- men's suits/blazers, some of which were brand name, dress shirts, pants, ties and some shoes. The pants and shirts were already organized by size, so that made it even easier to sort when I got it back to our location. I was really impressed with what she had and started to make regular trips down there to "shop" for what we needed.

Over the month, I acquired some other donations. I purchased some items at a great discount through Good360, a website for charities that is a clearing house for companies making bulk donations of all sorts of products. The items are technically free, but Good360 has a handling fee. The fee is usually not too bad and you get brand new items. I was able to get Red Wing men's shoes/boots and in January purchased 3 boxes of absolutely beautiful Banana Republic men's wool dress pants for a tiny fraction of their actual cost.

I also spent time decorating the space- I hung some of my favorite pictures, mostly of flowers and landscapes- all pictures that I've taken. Our space is bare bones, but it was important to me to make it looks as warm and inviting as possible. Pictures of flowers bring me such joy and while I don't necessarily think that everyone else feels the same way, I hoped that the men coming in would find happiness in looking at them too. I bought some basic metal folding chairs, table and a great full length mirror. I also purchased a steamer, an item, that sad to say, I still have to figure out how to use. I was very budget conscious. There was definitely more decorating that I wanted to do, but it was important to keep costs down. I did feel that our space looked inviting, that was important to me.

In mid-December, Maddrey, the Director of Mass Hire Boston's Career Center, came to visit our space to check it out. Mass Hire is part of Goodwill, the organization that originally helped me find my space. He brought Dan with him, who runs the Boston Pre-Release employment program which helps people who are recently released from jail with finding employment. Maddrey wanted Dan to be able to refer men to our program. They were happy to see the space and really liked the clothing that we had so far.

By early January, I was ready to take our first clients! That story will be in our next blog- until next time friends...

A New Beginning

Greetings friends. It has been so long since the last time I've blogged. These are such crazy and difficult times with everything that is happening because of coronavirus. I started a new program for Project Smile, Suits & Smiles, and thought this would be a good chance to share the story behind it.

2020 started off as an amazing year. For almost 2 years, I had wanted to add a new program for Project Smile which would provide men in need with job interview and work attire. In the summer of 2018, I read an article in the NYT about an organization in New York City which was providing this service for men in need. Reading about the experiences of some of the men who received clothing was so heartwarming. I searched for organizations that provided men in the Boston area with job interview clothing, but I didn't find anything. I reached out to Kim Todd, the Executive Director of the Boston chapter of Dress for Success- I've known Kim since the very early days of Project Smile- she was one of our earliest supporters and was a huge help in my early days of grant writing. I asked her about the need in Boston area for our program which provided men with job interview attire. She said there was a tremendous need and was very encouraging.

Finding space for our program was tremendously difficult. I needed space in the greater Boston area which was accessible by public transit. It was important that people be able to access our service if they didn't have a car. Ideally, I needed a parking space for myself since I would be driving in. I spent a lot of time reaching out to people I knew that may be able to help and I spent a lot of time chasing down dead ends. By January 2019, I had almost given up on trying to find a physical space to run the program from and I decided that I would make it a mobile program, where I would load clothes into my car or buy a van and have a version of a fashion truck where I could go to different locations and set up a pop-up shop or, if I had a truck, could park the truck in a location and men could come and "shop" for clothes. I started reaching out for clothing donations- our local newspaper, The Milford Daily News, did a very nice story about the new program, and I received many calls and donations from local residents.

Within a few days of receiving donations, I realized that my mobile idea wasn't going to work. The reality was that I didn't have much help at that point, so I needed to be able to run the program by myself. I've always worked from an office in my mom's house, so I had taken over a spare bedroom for clothing storage. I soon realized that men's clothing, particularly suits are rather heavy- especially when you're trying to carry arm loads of them up and down stairs. There's also a lot more involved with properly storing/organizing clothing than stuffed animals. Clothes need to be hung up for the most part or neatly folded and they need to be organized by size.

I also quickly got overwhelmed with people donating clothing that was totally unusable. I know that many people donate with wonderful intentions, but I was receiving clothing that had moth holes, some clothes that were very old, smelled bad, some items that clearly weren't business clothing- (baseball caps, hoodies), etc. I did receive very nice items as well, but sorting through the clothing was becoming very distressing. It reminded me of my early years of Project Smile, when we received tons of stuffed animals, most of which could not be used. I realized that loading and unloading my car to set up pop-up shops on a weekly basis wasn't going to work. It was too impractical and wasn't going to be sustainable.

I also realized that I didn't want to drive a truck around Boston. I love driving, but the idea of trying to navigate a van or something the size of a food truck through Boston's congested streets and park it on a regular basis, was rather daunting. I had flash backs of the time I drove a moving van around Allston on one of my sister's college move-in days. A very stressful experience indeed.

I don't shy away from challenges, but the mobile program was going to be logistically too difficult to run by myself.  I decided to stop taking more clothing donations and went back to trying to find a permanent space. Months later, I was no further along in my search and had almost given up. Then, one day, in the middle of last summer, I received an email from a lady at Goodwill in Boston who had been helping me trying to help me find space since the year before. Goodwill and Mass Hire had been very supportive of what I was trying to do. Kathleen asked if I was still looking for space and recommended that I reach out to another lady who knew someone who had space. I made the phone call as soon as I got the email, but I didn't think it would really go anywhere- I had been feeling very discouraged. The lady on the phone was very nice, she told me to call this guy named Robert who was connected to the organization that managed the potential space located in Jamaica Plain. I thanked her, but still didn't think it would go anywhere. I called Robert, who was very pleasant and talked about a potential space that would be coming available later in the summer. It sounded good- located just a short walk from the Orange line T stop, had free parking as well. A few days later, I saw the space- it was great office space located in a housing development. I really liked it, but there was still an organization located there and running a program. I was trying not to get too excited, but this looked promising. However, a month later, I found out that the space was not going to be available. Robert told me that there may be another space that would work for us and he'd look into it. I was very discouraged at this point and felt like I would never find a home for our program.

In October, I reached out to Robert again and told him how much I needed to find space- I was feeling desperate but trying not to show it. A few days later, I went to see another space that was in the community center at the same housing development. The space was vacant-  a good sign and it was great. It was even better than the previous space, especially since it was in its own building. There had been a children's program there before, so it was painted in all sorts of crazy colors, but it had three rooms, lots of big windows and it was available! I negotiated a reasonable rent with the president of the organization that managed the space and eventually moved in on December 1. The wait was over and Suits & Smiles had found its home.

Well, that's all for today friends.. tomorrow, I'll let you know what happened after we moved in.  I hope you're staying well.

Welcome Back!

Greetings friends! I have returned to blogging! I fell out of the habit of blogging and before you know it, 9 months go by and I haven't written anything. One could think that nothing was happening, but that definitely wasn't true!

So what has been going on? Well, 2016 was a good year. We kept going with our donations and worked hard to make sure that we reach as many police/fire departments. We worked with DCF again to organize another Baby Shower for the Worcester area offices in October. The event was great and we collected so many baby items. It is really impressive how generous people are. We're not doing the event this year, but we are in the early stages of planning a larger, regional event for the spring of 2018. It's going to take a lot of effort and partnerships, but I think it is something that we can definitely do successfully.

On the event side, our 13th Anniversary Celebration was one of our best ones ever. I mixed the event up a bit and added a comedy performance and wine tasting. They were huge hits. Our comedian, Candace Sallale, did an amazing job. She brought a lot of people with her to the event and she was hilarious. A special thank you to Candace for making our event such a success. We also partnered with my favorite liquor store, Julio's, in Westborough. They worked with one of their wine suppliers and did a complimentary wine tasting at the event, which everyone loved. I am excited for this year's event and will be starting work on it soon. I was already talking with our designer Marie, about new images for the Anniversary event and the Date Auction.

For the Date Auction, I did something new and hired a woman who runs her own PR company. I felt that I needed help in reaching out to new contacts, particularly in terms of recruiting participants. She did a very good job and was able to bring in a new crop of talent to participate as eligible bachelors/ettes. We had the Patriots Cheerleaders at the event, they were lovely as usual and our hosts, Melissa & Ramiro from 96.9 did a terrific job hosting the event. I'm thinking about ways to mix the event up a bit this year, in order to keep it fresh. It's hard to imagine that it will be our 11th Date Auction and our 14th Anniversary Celebration coming up!

Yesterday, I was in Melrose and Lowell doing donations of stuffed animals, books and coloring books. Here's a photo from our Lowell donation. We've been donating to Lowell for over 10 years!

Well, there's lots more to share, but I need to move on to catching up on some emails. I still struggle with keeping up with the amount of donation requests we get from people wanting to donate stuffed animals. It's obviously great that people want to help us and I don't mean to get delayed some times in responding, but it does get hard to keep up.

I'm happy to be back blogging! Until next time friends...

Expansion Efforts Underway

Greetings friends! So what's new? Well, spring has finally returned- sun is out, our world is blooming, one can't help but feel happy. Things are busy here. I started work on our new program, Project Dignity- we will be providing low income adults and families with basic personal care and household care necessities. This includes soap, toothpaste, toilet paper, laundry detergent, shampoo, feminine hygiene products, baby items, etc. Basically, all the items one needs to look after themselves besides food. There is a huge need for these items. Food stamps only cover food, so you can imagine how hard it is for people to manage all the other items they need. I spoke with the Worcester County Food Bank recently and they are happy to have our help in providing these items. In Worcester County, 10% of the population live at or below the poverty level- over 80,000 people. In Worcester alone, 16% of the population is at poverty level.  I was researching the issue and found a study that was done a couple of years ago by Feeding America. It found that 34% of low-income families found it difficult to afford basic household necessities. 73% of low-income families have cut back on food in order to afford household goods. 21% of low-income families skip or cut back on medical expenses to afford household necessities. 74% of families were forced to skip washing dishes or doing laundry. 33% of families unable to afford household goods report bathing without soap or reusing diapers in order to get by. Not having access to basic items directly affects quality of life. It leads to hygiene and health issues, high levels of stress and discomfort, stigma and robs people of their basic dignity. Now, all I have to do is get some funding so that we can get started. I am working on a grant for the Worcester area, it's almost done, but I need our accountant to finish some financial statements that I have to include in the grant. I also started a grant application for the greater Boston area. I feel really passionately about expanding in this direction. I hope we get funding within the next couple of months so that we can get moving. 

In other news, here is a photo from our recent donation to DCF. It's always one of my favorite donations to do. There is such a need for items for children and the DCF staff are really happy to have items like ours to give to the children they help.

Well, that's the latest for tonight. There's lots more to write about, but I need to go and work on my PS email blast that has to go out tomorrow morning. Until tomorrow friends....

Latest and Greatest

Greetings friends! So what's new? Well, things are moving along well. This week, I've been working particularly hard on getting auction items for both of our big events. I was a little behind on outreach, but have caught up now. We are doing well with getting items. We've been getting some new items including a vineyard which is donating a wine tasting and tour. It's funny, I was looking at my donation database and there is one company that used to say in their guidelines that a charity could only apply for an item donation every 5 years. We received the donation in 2012 and I hadn't applied since. On a lark, I decided to go on the site and see if their policy might have changed. It had changed! So, I went ahead and applied for an item. I also decided to reach out to a local company that had sponsored the Anniversary event a couple of years ago, but hadn't responded to emails since then. I reached out about sponsorship or auction item donation and the person wrote back almost immediately that they would donate a nice item for the auction. It's really important to keep going back to potential donors. You never know what's changed. With the economy improving, some places can now donate again. Also,  just like sometimes helpful people leave, then sometimes unhelpful people leave too and are replaced with people that want to help your efforts. It can get tiring to keep following up, but it is really critical.

Here is a photo from our donation a couple of weeks ago to Fitchburg PD. We've been donated to Fitchburg for almost 10 years!

Tonight, I was the guest speaker at the Franklin Rotary Club. The Club has been a loyal supporter of our work. They've made an annual donation for over the past 6 years and always invite me to come back and update them. It is a small group and very friendly. I really enjoyed visiting them tonight and letting them know what we were up to. Before I spoke, they were talking about upcoming projects that they are doing. One of them is organizing a soap drive for the Franklin Food Pantry. The President was saying that the Food Pantry was telling them that there is a great need for non-food items. Food stamps only cover actual food, so people are left to struggle to pay for everything else- those are essential items too. Can you imagine not being able to buy soap, toilet paper, toothpaste or if you're a woman- pads/tampons. It must be dreadful. I would like to be able to expand in a way that provide essential items like that for families in need. Maybe I can get grants that would help with that. I'm going to figure out how to turn it into a program.

On that note, I am off to eat- not sure exactly what my snack will be- most likely an orange and a banana. I've been buying Cara oranges at Market Basket. They are super sweet and juicy- highly recommend. Until next time friends..

Changing with the Times

Greetings friends! It has been a while since my last post. I was on an amazing 10 day vacation to San Francisco and Hawaii and had lots to catch up on when I got back. Hawaii is an incredible place, I have never seen such amazing natural beauty.

So I'm happy to announce that we're going to be launching a new fundraiser item- our own Project Smile coloring book! The color book will be designed by children, for children. We're going to sell advertising space to help cover the cost of producing the coloring book and to raise funds. We will debut it at our Anniversary Celebration on October 21. We will sell some on our website and we will donate some to the departments and organizations that participate in our program. The coloring book will be replacing the calendar. It is sad to think of the calendar disappearing, it was my very first idea for a fundraiser and marketing tool. Our first calendar was produced in 2003. We're now on our 13th calendar. However, it is time for a change. The calendar sales have been declining the last couple of years and we need to do something new. I think the coloring book would be perfect. A lot of people don't necessarily use paper calendars anymore (I do) and also it was just time for a new thing. People get bored with seeming the same type of thing, so we need to mix it up. I will miss doing the photos, that is always fun, but maybe in the future we can do something else that will incorporate photos of children. We're going to be doing a drawing contest to encourage children to submit drawings that we can use in the coloring book. I'm going to reach out to local schools and also the police/fire departments that used to participate in the calendar and see if any of their children would like to enter the contest. We will invite the children and their parents whose drawings were selected for the coloring book. I need to get a contest flyer done, then start working on advertising. I'm excited to do something new and see how it goes. I have a lot of confidence in this and I'm happy that we're changing.

There is a lot of change happening this year. We're adding a new event- the High Heel Dash. We've given the Date Auction a new design look, new webpage, new start time and now I need to move on to making some changes to the Anniversary Celebration. I also want to add a new Smiling Stiletto Chapter in Providence which will help Project Smile eventually expand in that area. Change is good!

On that note, I am off to finish the items on my to-do list. I got a  lot done today, but there are still a few more things I need to do. Until next time friends...