Residents of Paradise Park in Harlingen donated new clothes, shoes, and undergarments to the HCISD Clothing Closet.
“We are delighted to be able to do this,” Paradise Park resident Sharon Bargel said. “I heard something on the local news about Harlingen’s School District’s Clothing Closet, and it piqued my interest.”
Bargel began a minimal-contact clothing drive at Paradise Park by placing a coat bin at the end of her driveway.
“People just really embraced it,” Bargel said. “It has been really heartwarming to see people dropping off items. The people in our park, in addition to donating items, they also donated cash. I was the designated shopper. I used the $895 that was donated to purchase these items.”
The donation included 209 briefs, 235 pairs of socks, 49 coats, and 40 pairs of shoes along with a couple more items.
Parental Involvement met the Paradise Park residents at the door of the annex building to accept the donations.
“These families are really going to appreciate it,” HCISD social worker Patsy Sanchez said. “This comes at a time when we are going to be getting a lot of calls. We are just truly blessed that the community came out with all this help for us. We have been getting calls from families and schools about kids needing clothes and shoes, especially undergarments. We were almost out of them and so we are really blessed that all of this was given to us.”
The HCISD Clothing Closet accepts donations of gently used clothes, but they are always in need of new undergarments in a variety of sizes.
“We are very grateful to our community for always coming through,” Director of Parental Involvement/Dropout Prevention Dr. Jose Luis Cavazos said. “We have a lot of families in need and we really count on our community and district family because they always donate. It’s like a blessing from the sky; it just comes down and we have all these clothes to donate to our HCISD families.”