Donations of “gently used” clothes sought for student job interviews

Do you have any "gently used" business clothing items to spare? Perhaps a dress shirt and tie or nice skirt of the kind Western students could wear at job interviews?

If so, the newly created Compass 2 Campus 2 Career Closet is accepting donations of business attire from the campus community. The idea is to provide interview clothing for Western students who may not have the financial ability to purchase a new set of clothes for an interview for a job or internship.

“There is a definite need for a number of students who simply cannot afford to pay several hundred dollars in order to look professional at job interviews,” said Cyndie Shepard, Compass 2 Campus director and organizer of the project. “The Career Closet is intended to fill that need.”

The program needs dresses, skirts, blouses, pants, suits, men’s suits, dress shirts, ties, sport coats, dress shoes and other business attire accessories. Casual clothing items, such as sweaters or jeans, are not needed.

Students will be able to borrow “wear ready” clothing from the Career Closet. Once their interview is over, they will return the clothing to the Career Closet for use by other students. Students borrowing the clothing will be asked to have the clothing cleaned and pressed before returning it, which Shepard notes is a small fraction of the cost of buying new business attire.

In order to donate gently used business attire, please contact Rachel Anderson at the College of Fine and Performing Arts at (360) 650-3305 or rachel.anderson@wwu.edu in order to schedule an appointment to drop off clothes.

The Career Closet is a partnership of Woodring College’s Compass 2 Campus Program, Western’s Career Services Center and the College of Fine and Performing Arts.