It was 40 years ago –1985 – that the Shalom Lutheran Church Clothing Closet began under Pastor Ronald Rein’s tenure. And the Clothing Closet is still serving the community four decades later, with Pastor Dan Quagliata now the senior pastor at the church.
At that time, Shalom’s Social Outreach committee was led by Teresa Leibold and she saw this outreach in another community and suggested it for Shalom. Teresa was the Clothing Closet’s first director. Shalom congregation members Kim Larrow and Linda Shultes have been involved with clothing closet since the beginning.
The Clothing Closet is open to the community the second Saturday of the month, January through November, from 9:30 a.m. to noon. Now known as Shalom Life Church, it’s located at 1740 E. M-36 in Pinckney.
Clothing donations originally came from thrift shops in Pinckney and Dexter. When those shops closed, donations began coming in from the congregation and the community, and that continues today.
Donations are accepted during the first week of the month. Organizers emphasize that donations should be new or gently used items without tears, stains or odors, although significant sorting takes place to weed out what isn’t acceptable to share with the community.
That “sorting” process is all done by volunteers and is hard work. If you are considering donations, they encourage you to be mindful of items being donated and to limit to a couple bags/boxes and not to pack those too heavy.
Community members that attend Clothing Closet are grateful for this outreach and the response has been growing. The Clothing Closet has its regular shoppers that come every month with new community members attending each month.
They now have a line waiting to get in when the doors open. Community members are either looking for themselves or family members and friends. They see families, parents, grandparents, aunts/uncles, young adults and teenagers.
Some people are looking at specific items for work. Some even ship clothing to their families in other countries. They also see people who are looking for clothing for individuals in our community’s assisted living facilities, adult foster care, and other group homes, and for area migrant workers like Buurma Farms. Organizers say it’s rewarding to hear how this mission is making a difference for these families.
After the Clothing Closet is open, children’s clothing that is leftover is donated to Livingston County Foster Closet. All other remaining items and what was sorted out as not nice enough to put out, move on from Shalom. In the beginning, were picked up by Purple Heart, followed by Michigan Recycle, and currently by Midwest Recycle, where the clothes are sorted again bundled, and further distributed domestically and internationally.
In 2014, during Pastor Kurt Hutchens’ tenure at Shalom, a grant was secured to fund the building of the Baja House, an exact reproduction of one of the many houses built by Shalom volunteers on mission trips to Baja, Mexico, building nine houses for underprivileged residents/working class poor. It is the little blue house located on the back corner of the Shalom parking lot and for many years was the primary home of the Shalom Clothing Closet until it permanently moved inside to the Community Life Center inside Shalom.
The Baja House continues to serve the community one night a week, typically the fourth Wednesday, May through October, and is always available to anyone who has an immediate need for clothing. They say it has been a blessing to respond to community members that have lost everything in a fire or for other unplanned circumstances.
In 2021, Shalom partnered with Love INC (Love In the Name of Christ) out of Howell as one of their partner churches serving the greater Livingston County area. They provide clothing, shoes and incidentals to their clients overcoming vulnerable circumstances and need appropriate clothing for interviewing, work, court appearances and just getting back on their feet. The Clothing Closet donations are the primary source to respond to these needs.
Shalom Life Church will be recognizing Shalom’s longest standing community outreach at the Saturday, Oct. 11 Clothing Closet and at the services (8:30 a.m. and 10:45 a.m.) on Sunday, Oct. 12.
