So you lost your job and times are tough; maybe the kids wear threadbare clothes because this week the choice was food or shoes.
The Keeper’s Closet is here to help. And it’s free.
Almost a year old, the Gilroy nonprofit serves the clothing needs of newborns to six-year-olds, a segment of the population its founder said was not being served in Gilroy when it comes to free clothing for the needy.
The founder and board president of The Keeper’s Closet is retired attorney and former city councilman Brian Cunningham, 73. He has long been involved in charity work, including a stint as president of Martha’s Kitchen and as a leader in the St. Vincent de Paul Society of South County in Morgan Hill.
In was while with the latter organization that he saw the unmet need that led to the founding of The Keeper’s Closet last February. It’s part of a larger nonprofit called Life Advocates that helps young women facing unplanned pregnancies, young people contemplating suicide and those in need of food and clothing.
It costs about $50,000 a year to run The Keeper’s Closet, including rent and a half-time outreach manager. Cunningham pays for it all out of his own pocket.
“He not only has a heart for helping and serving people, he definitely is a dreamer and a doer,” said Rochelle Henson, 25, the group’s outreach manager and only employee.
The mainstays among the volunteers are Julie Gozzo, Cunningham’s legal assistant, Debbie Molyneaux, Mary Fierro Lisa Menge and Lisa Dimas Jessen.
The mission of The Keeper’s Closet is “to serve families who can’t afford clothing,” to provide it for free and to unite the community to recycle and reuse clothing, according to Henson, an Aromas resident.
“By doing that,” she said, “we are helping families who are going through tough times.”
The group takes donations of clothing and shoes typically in large plastic bags, then sorts and stores the clothes by type, gender and size.
Two of its greatest needs are consistent donations and increased visibility. For now, their go-to outreach tool is Facebook, at facebook.com/TheKeepersCloset/.
In its 1,800-square-foot headquarters in a modest Gilroy office building on West First Street, Henson has created an elaborate but simple and orderly system that uses stacks of cardboard file boxes to store and easily find each category of clothing. Nearby shelves hold scores of shoes, while dozens of colorful jackets and coats hang on racks. In another room are dozens of bags of donated clothing awaiting sorting.
The clothing is handed out, no questions asked, every few months at distribution events at the office. Those in need also can drop in during the week but must call ahead and make an appointment. The same goes for donors, because the office is not always staffed.
“Because this is our first year it has been kind of a trial year and we still are planning which days are best,” Henson said, regarding the big distributions.
“For our very first, nobody knew about us so we only had eight kids but at our second we served 92 and the third it was 75,” she said.
The next events will be Feb. 22 and April 2.
Needy families can receive shirts, shoes, pants, shorts, sweatshirts, jackets, dresses, socks and underwear. The Keeper’s Closet often also has a selection of strollers, high chairs and toys. Sometimes there are diapers and cribs.
And all of those are the items that the group encourages people to donate, preferable gently used, clean and in large plastic bags.
The group accepts sizes up to 8-year-olds because some 6-year-olds are bigger than average, Henson said.
The biggest need is for boys clothing, according to Cunningham.
“We are always running out of clothes, especially for young boys, sometimes we have to buy then from the Salvation Army,” he said.
He hopes people who dump clothing in street bins around town will consider The Keeper’s Closet and its collection bins instead. They are located in USA Gymnastics and Strandz Beauty Salon in Gilroy, Artistry Hair Salon in Morgan Hill and at Aromas Free School in Aromas.
Cunningham would like to hand out modest, free food packs with nonperishable staples such as beans and rice, for families really in a bind. He hopes someone in Gilroy’s food industry will come forward and help with that idea.
The name, The Keeper’s Closet, was inspired in part by the divine and in part by the whimsy of word play, Cunningham said.
“The idea was that Keeper refers to God the Father and how He cares for us, and Closet was just sort of alliteration,” that they liked.
Henson and Cunningham voiced similar sentiments when asked what they get out of the services provided by The Keeper’s Closet. Cunningham put it this way: “There is a certain uplift I get and others that join me get in helping others,” he said.
“It’s a dramatic life lift you feel. There is no other human activity that matches helping others; in the autumn of my life I have found it to be one of the most rewarding things I have done.”
To donate or receive clothing, The Keeper’s Closet is at 1335 First St., Suite C, across from Mama Mia’s restaurant. The office is on the second floor. Call ahead at (408) 847-2018 or contact them via email at
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