Youth Advisory Council hosts free and environmentally friendly pop-up thrift store

The Cut hosted the Youth Advisory’s free pop-up thrift shop on Saturday, May 2nd. The day was filled with energy, as the community came together to support reducing climate change and keeping clothes out of the landfill. 

The project was created and headed by President Veila Wrinn and Hope Castellucci, both seniors, and part of the Youth Advisory Council. They are passionate about environmental issues and normalizing thrifting. 

“My mission was to destigmatize reusing clothing.” Wrinn said, “Fast fashion has a huge impact on our environment. The landfills our clothing ends up in contribute to much of the world’s carbon emissions.” 

The event brought the community together, all striving to make it more environmentally aware of the impact of fast fashion. Each bag of clothing given away was accompanied by a pamphlet teaching others about the detrimental effects of consumerism and what we can do to make steps toward living a more sustainable life. 

“An underlying mission was to bring the community together, unifying those of us who can’t afford what’s trending, in hopes of making them feel welcomed, supported, and included.” Wrinn said, “It felt amazing to have the support from the community, whether they donated clothing, helped secure a spot for the event, showed up on Saturday, or stayed after school to prepare in the weeks leading up to the event.”

By the end of the day, the event saw 82 individual families receive needed clothing, with 457 articles of clothing given away, and only 3.75 bags of clothing left over to donate to the Open Door. 

“It was really great.” Emily Marques, a customer of the pop-up, said, “Everything nowadays costs money, and it stood out to me that everyone there purely wanted to give.”