By: Christian Sarna

With temperatures plummeting below zero, a warm winter coat can mean all the difference to a student in need.

The Griff Pop-Up Closet is an on-campus thrift shop with no price tags. It was initiated by Drea Gordon who is the director of GriffsGiveBack, creator of the Power Organization and president of the Western chapter of the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority incorporated.

“I wanted a way to use everything to give back,” Gordon said. “I felt this would be a perfect opportunity to get things moving, I had a better platform to do so.”

Students looking to use the closet must simply present their student ID to volunteers. On every visit, students are allowed to pick out up to six tops and six bottoms. Like the Campus Cupboard, an on-campus food pantry, students can visit the pop-up closet up to two times a month.

“Not only are people taking this clothing, but people are also realizing, ‘Hey, I do want some new clothes, but I also have these clothes I don’t wear anymore,’” Gordon said. “That’s how we’ve literally kept clothes in here the entire time since we started.”

According to Gordon, the pop-up closet has received a steady flow of donations of varying styles and sizes.

“We actually have some name brands,” Gordon said. “We have Nike; we’ve got some Adidas stuff.”

While they receive a wide variety of donations, there are some items that are still needed.

“We get a lot of women’s clothing,” Gordon said. “If we could get more men’s clothing, that would be amazing.”

She says that students who are looking to donate any gently-used clothes can simply drop them off during the pop-up closet’s open hours or contact her directly.

Gordon says that her long-term goal is to expand the pop-up closet to help the surrounding communities in St. Joseph. Instead of throwing away unwanted items or keeping excess clothing, the pop-up closet rotates items through Western students and donates what is left.

The future of the Griff Pop-Up Closet is still yet to be known. Gordon and GriffsGiveBack are currently working to find a more permanent space for the pop-up closet. To see this goal realized, the pop-up closet is going to need some help.

“We definitely need volunteers,” Gordon said. “For us to get where we need to be in order to get our own final spot, we need students to come out. We need students to talk about the closet, come visit, donate.”

At Western, if the shoe doesn’t fit, donate it.