A “RE-LOVED PRE-LOVED” FASHION fundraiser is taking place at Scariff Community College this Saturday (March 8th).
The pop-up shop is being organised by teachers Rachel Stewart and Darina Sheridan with Transition Year students to raise funds for a new astroturf pitch. The shop is running from 1pm to 4pm and is selling exclusively women’s fashion to mark International Women’s Day.
The Scariff teacher says the idea came about during a lesson on the circular economy. The success of the ‘Nourish and Flourish’ event on St Brigid’s Day gave further impetus. “We knew the idea was a runner. We started gathering garments from all over the country, from as far away as Donegal right down to West Cork. Several bloggers and influencers have sent us clothing as well. If you look at the full circle, you’re taking an item that’s been mass produced, it might still have the tags on it just because it was an impulse buy online and now we have it back around and we’re putting it back into our local economy which is our astroturf”.
Preparations are well underway at the school as the over 400 students assist to have the secondary school ready for Saturday. “We have over 500 garments for sale in our new building and alongside that we’re going to have a café and bake sale with baked goods on the day as well. We have designer items retailing at €50 and these would previously have been on sale for over €300. We have plenty of macks and raincoats for Spring and the season ahead. We have designers like French Connection, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, LK Bennett shoes, Guess bags. You name it, we have it for every lady. There’s something there for everybody, every colour, every style”.
“Many students are passionate about the environment while in secondary school but tend to move away from this as time goes on. This is something that Stewart is keen to avoid however as she says that “It’s definitely something that we’re going to continue on with. The second phase of this would be that we would hold a teenager pre-loved shop before the summer holidays,” she added.
Rachel is confident this will become a regular event in the school. “We want the younger students in the school to get involved with that. So that then will be passed on to the younger classes once we have finished with next Saturday. It’s something we will continue definitely, we’re very keen on producing green future leaders from our school in particular”.
Students have promoted the event on social media through its account (@sscgreenschools) which has over 250 followers and features a number of posts with information on fast fashion and single-use plastics. “They’re very involved in promoting it on social media and setting up the Instagram accounts. The younger students have also been involved in the tagging and segregating of the items”.
“We’re hoping that they’ll understand that fast fashion isn’t good for the environment and continue that into the future as future leaders. The younger students were actually shocked and boys in particular that people would impulse buy and never wear the items. They’ve arrived en masse. It’s incredible and we got some great footage of that. They’re surprised that these things can still be valuable and that they’ll go into their astroturf”.
Funding for the new astro is going well so far with €414,000 of the necessary €450,000 raised. The East Clare school will continue to run and manage events until the full total is raised.
