On any given Monday, the black donation bin in the front office would be nearly empty. But by Wednesday, it would be overflowing.
That was the pattern for Children’s Hospital Volunteer Club, Wear and Share, Hope for Health, Pass It On, and Key Club during the clothing drive they hosted last semester. Ultimately, the collaboration amassed 1,300 pounds of clothing over roughly two months, which was donated to support local communities in need.
Long before the first bin was put out, students from these five clubs were hard at work managing and planning the logistics for the drive.
“We were doing weekly Zoom calls on Fridays,” Timothy Jiang (11), from Wear and Share, said, “…planning everything out, figuring out what teachers needed to be involved, what roles we needed to fill.”
When the drive officially launched in mid-November, donations began piling up almost immediately. Bins were placed all across campus and at external locations as well, such as the Mark Green Sports Center.
Expanding beyond just the Logan campus also shifted this drive from being just a school activity to a community-wide event. “We wanted to sort of make this the biggest event possible…a good way to get the community involved and reach out to as many different people as possible,” Benny Thind (11), from Children’s Hospital Volunteer Club, said.
Grace Liu (11), president of Hope for Health, reiterated this sentiment about the value of this collaboration, “It’s better to have a lot of different clubs at Logan work together instead of pursuing their own different things. A collective effort really makes a difference.”
And with this drive, a collective effort did make all the difference.
Still, some of the organizers were initially worried the drive might not get much traction. Bentley Nguyen (12), president of Key Club, admitted that when he first checked on his club’s bins, only a few were actually filled.
“My first reaction was like, ‘Oh, we might not get a lot of clothes,’” he said.
But the hesitation was temporary; once all the clothes were gathered in one place, a different feeling was experienced among the organizers. The sheer volume of clothing collected shocked students leading the effort.
“We were so impressed,” Riya Chawla (11), president of Pass It On, said. “Our jaws were dropped.”
Nguyen confirmed, “The clothes filled up a whole corner of the classroom….And we were like, ‘How are we gonna move this?’”
In turn, with aid from Principal Ron Polk, a classroom at Logan was opened up to store the clothes during the duration of the drive. CSTs graciously helped transport overflowing bins by golf cart to this room.
According to Thind, one thing that especially surprised him about hosting this drive was the participation from school staff.
“The people in the office loved donating….They said that they had a bunch of clothes in their closet, and they’d empty them out just for this…It was eye-opening,” he said.
Liu later observed that not all students even claimed service hours for their contributions, showing just how many of them were donating just for the sake of donating.
“When I checked the spreadsheet…the numbers didn’t match up,” she said. “A good portion of people…just wanted to help.”
Once collected, the clothes were transported to CityTeam in San Jose, a volunteer-driven organization that distributes food, clothing, and other supplies to people in need across the Bay Area. Through events called open closets, individuals can take what they need at no cost.
“When we walked into the CityTeam warehouse, everybody there was volunteering,” Chawla said. “Someone was packing Christmas gifts. Someone was organizing food. Someone was organizing clothing.”
In that moment, it became clear that the real weight of this drive came not from the amount of clothing donated but from the care so many students exhibited for their community.
As Jiang said, “It’s so rewarding knowing that you’re given this gift to give other people these clothes and using your privilege to help others.”
For others, realizing how one’s own willingness to help could translate into support for others made the experience even more intimate.
“We’re blessed with so much…more than we realize,” said Chawla. “Helping out in the slightest…felt really heartwarming.”
“You will never fully understand…how much this can affect somebody unless you were in a situation where you needed somebody else’s help,” Thind said.
Given how greatly the fashion industry contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, Liu also pointed out the positive environmental impact of reusing clothing.
“Passing on your loved items, instead of disposing of them, is an act of helping the environment,” she said. “We prevented a lot of carbon emissions from coming out of the clothes that could have gone into the landfill. As high school students, you don’t really realize…it really does make a difference in the world.”
More than just a clothing drive, this partnership served as a reminder that inciting change is not just reserved for those with titles or influence; sometimes all it takes is a single step forward.
However, the work won’t stop here for these clubs; they are already discussing future collaborations, next year or sooner.
Nguyen, now a senior, is proud to leave momentum for his underclassmen to carry on.
“I’m glad that I’m leaving off on a good note,” he said. To future leaders, he advised, “Anyone can do it. You just have to put in the effort.”
Liu proposed a similar message for students looking to start their own initiatives.
“A lot of teenagers…care about different causes,” she said. “The thing that they’re missing is just the confidence in themselves…Do trial and error. Some things work. Some things don’t. Just do it.”
After moving over half a ton of clothing across campus into the hands of families in need, it’s safe to say these students understand how much just getting started matters.
Or as Jiang put it, “If you really want to do something, you should do it now…It’s not as hard as you think.”
