Annual clothing giveaway is Saturday

WASILLA — With the school year just around the corner, parents can have one less thing to worry about with the help of Frontline Mission.

The mission will open its doors for a free barbecue and Community Clothing Giveaway from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., July 18. Clothing is available in all sizes and styles for browsing and selection in the Church of Nazarene school gymnasium with lunch starting by noon.

“We know there’s a need around this time — we try to do our big giveaway at the end of July. It’s when people start thinking about back to school and not everyone is able to buy new things — especially with kids that are growing so fast,” Frontline Mission member Kristina Cassidy said by phone.

Clothing provided for the giveaway comes from community member donations, lost-and-found boxes, or consignment stores to the mission’s year-round closet. Donations are sorted and stored until the July event. Eagle Eye Storage contributes one unit with two months of free rent to shelter donations until they can be re-homed.

“Right now, we have a 10x10 storage unit, much at the church, and an additional portable full of clothing to giveaway,” Cassidy said. “It can feel like a lot, but we know it goes to a good place in the end.”

Redd agreed.

“Sometimes [in set-up] we look at the mountain of bags of clothing and think we’ll never get this done,” organizer Marilyn Redd laughed.

Redd, who has been organizing clothing giveaways at churches around the Valley for 20 years, says she has heard many stories of those helped by the giveaways.

“For a lot of people they say ‘Thank you for doing this. We could not afford clothes and school supplies,’” she said. “We also usually have two to three families a year who have just been burned out, lost everything within a week or month of the giveaway and this is their chance to start new.”

The clothing giveaway fits with Frontline’s mission “to strengthen the Mat-Su Valley by being a connecting place between the less fortunate and compassionate as we unconditionally accept, holistically assist, and passionately advocate for our neighbors who endure the causes of poverty.”

In addition to the clothing giveaway, the mission also operates the Valley’s only soup kitchen, serving meals at 6 p.m., Wednesdays, and also providing food and grocery distribution Thursdays and Fridays, and hosts holiday dinners for the community. Plans also are in the works to add a community laundry and shower facility.

“God wants me to keep doing this, so I listen to him, and I do,” Redd said.