MLHS senior sponsoring clothing drive for North

MOSES LAKE - A Moses Lake High School senior is soliciting donations of children's clothing, new clothes and used clothes in good condition, for donation in turn to North Elementary School. Sage Smith said she wants to collect enough clothes to give something to every kid at North.

Every senior has to do a project as a graduation requirement, and Smith said she started looking for a good community service project last year. She was talking it over with her mom one day when they heard a radio commercial for a charitable project at North. Her mom said doing something for the kids at North would be a great project, she said.

Smith got an enthusiastic response when she talked to the PTO president at North, she said. "They loved my idea."

Currently North has 305 students in kindergarten through fifth grade, according to school officials. Smith said she wanted to donate something to each child. That's a lot of kids. "That's a lot of clothes," Smith said. It's great if they're new, she said, but she will take used clothes in good condition.

She got a lot of used clothes from her younger brother and sister, she said, and the word got out among family friends. They've donated clothes too, but there's a ways to go.

"Anything - I could use anything," she said. Boys need pants and shirts, jeans and T-shirts; girls need dresses and tops, shirts and pants and jeans. Smith will putting donation tubs around town, with the locations to be announced.

She said she's hoping to collect all the clothes by late November, then wash them, separate them by size and schedule the distribution sometime in December. When she started the project she wasn't sure it would take the required 25 hours, she said, but taking a closer look wised her up. "Wow. There's a lot of things you've got to do," she said.

People who want to donate clothes can contact Smith, 509-770-1047, and leave a message if calling during the day. Smith promised to call back, after 3 p.m. when school's out, she said.