The Medomak House, on Friendship Street in Waldoboro, where the Waldoboro Free Clothing Closet has now been housed for three years. (LCN file photo)
The team of dedicated volunteers who run Waldoboro’s Free Clothing Closet are reflecting this April on three years at their current location on Friendship Road, where the team has helped hundreds of individuals and families from greater Waldoboro access clean, quality clothing at no cost.
The three-year anniversary will be celebrated with an open house on Saturday, April 27 from 10 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. in the shop, at 124 Friendship Road in Waldoboro.
“There’s just so many reasons why people need clothing and really can’t afford the expense of it,” said Gale Henry, a coordinator for the closet, during a phone interview on Monday, April 22. “We want to make sure that people have what they need, whether it’s for school, for their job, or maybe they’ve had surgery and need special clothing.”
The Free Clothing Closet project began more than 20 years ago, Henry said, with donated clothing originally housed in a wooden shed at the corner of Jefferson and Main streets in town. Volunteers Rhonda Conway and Susan Lewis, who continue to volunteer with the organization, and the late Betsy Wooster helped organize the project, with minimum-security prisoners helping to sort through clothing. At the time, the shed was unmanned, its doors simply opened during food pantry hours to allow locals to access free clothing when needed, Henry said.
This operation came to a halt during the COVID-19 pandemic, Henry said. Then, in 2021, Rev. Peggy Davis and Ron Davis offered use of a retail space on the pair’s Medomak House property. The Waldoboro Free Clothing Closet got up and running again at that location, said Henry, and has only grown since.
The Waldoboro Free Clothing Closet is open to everyone, Henry said, with visitors regularly coming from as far north as Camden or as far south as Wiscasset. Patrons can come as often as once a month, on each visit taking up to two grocery bags’ worth of clothing.
The closet’s stock is replenished quickly. Lately, the organization has been receiving about 50 bags of donations on a weekly basis, Henry said.
A team of about 20 volunteers, most of whom are retirees, collaborate to process and wash the donations.
“It’s a very dedicated and talented group of retirees, of professionals, from all over; a lot of people who feel strongly about this cause and are happy to pitch in,” Henry said.
Boasting a substantial team and housed in a location designed for retail, the Free Clothing Closet is lately more reminiscent than ever of a typical store. But there’s a few features missing, Henry noted — namely, cash registers and price tags.
The Waldoboro Clothes Closet team is dedicated to their mission of distributing clothing for free. Access to clothing is a privilege that is easy to take for granted, Henry said.
“It’s important, just for dignity,” she said.
Henry noted that there are many diverse reasons that individuals may find the Free Clothing Closet useful.
The closet can be a major resource for people who are unhoused or who recently moved or were displaced with limited resources, Henry said.
The closet also began carrying children’s clothing when it moved into the Medomak House location, Henry said. Supplying families with clothes for kids is now a huge part of what the organization does.
“There’s a lot of circumstances where children are placed with family members in Maine … maybe they didn’t come with clothes. It’s not the kids’ fault,” she said. “The (family members) want the kids to have decent clothing so that the kids can start over up here and have the proper clothing for our climate.”
In such a situation, the Free Clothing Closet can help.
“Kids want to go to school in clean and decent clothing and shoes, boots, winter coats and things like that,” Henry said.
The closet also helps parents keep up with the needs of rapidly growing kids without breaking the bank, Henry added.
Free Clothing Closet volunteers are also eager to help adults find clothing, whether it is for everyday wear or for an interview, a job, a court appearance, or another event that they would otherwise not have appropriate clothing for, Henry said.
Lately, as the housing crisis worsens, Henry said that the Free Clothing Closet has become a resource for individuals whose housing is insufficient and who either lack transportation or cannot afford to go to local laundries, where a single load of laundry can cost in the area of $10.
“They can’t really reuse the clothing,” Henry said. “They wear it until it wears out, and then they get new clothing.”
The closet continues to operate in its current location thanks to donations from benefactors for things like utility costs, Henry said. However, she noted, the organization hopes to find more sustained sources of funding in the future to allow them to begin paying rent and expand their operations.
At the open house on April 27, Henry said that the team is looking forward to sharing information about both the impressive amount of work that goes into the closet’s operations and the tremendous level of need that still exists in the community.
“It’s really a grassroots type thing. It really is face-to-face with people in need,” she said. “We’re looking forward to welcoming everyone – existing customers, new customers, curious visitors, local officials, and professionals from support agencies – to drive up that steep driveway and see what we offer.”
The closet welcomes donations of clean clothing and accessories in good condition, financial donations, and donations of time. All volunteers must be age 18 or over, Henry said.
While the volunteers are thrilled at the volume of donations received at the closet, organizers ask people to use kitchen-sized trash bags rather than industrial-size bags, Henry said.
“We’re all retirees, we don’t want anyone getting hurt,” she said with a laugh.
The Waldoboro Free Clothing Closet third anniversary celebration and open house will be held on Saturday, April 27, from 10 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. at 124 Friendship Road in Waldoboro. For more information, find the Waldoboro Free Clothing Closet on Facebook or stop in during the organization’s operating hours from 10 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. every Friday and Saturday at the same address.
