Welcome to The Pop-Up Care Shop

December 19, 2016 KazzleDazz

Fashion, Good News, Inner Living, Inspiration, KazzleDazz, Personal Stories, Shopping, Taste & Style

On December 10th, my partner Kydee Williams and I launched our very first Pop-Up Care Shop! We’ve been working on this project since fall and we’re so proud of how everything came together. To fill you in, I met Kydee this year at Blavity’s EmpowerHer Conference back in May. We kept in touch and became fast friends and are now partners in a new charity project called The Pop-Up Care Shop. Simply, The Pop-Up Care Shop is a shop of donated goods for people in need to enjoy.

So how did we merch up our store you ask? Our project works in two phases: Phase #1 – Collect; Phase #2 – Set-Up Shop. We take donated items and place them on racks and shelves — super boutique vibes — in an effort to help others with dignity, respect, and style! In November, we hosted a clothing drive mixer, called Cocktails for a Cause, as phase #1 of our project. It was EVERYTHING.

Photo credit: Nia Stevens

The event was held at the lovely art space Warehouse Gallery in Brooklyn and sponsored by awesome brands like Oyin Handmade, RUNA, Core, Sensual Beauty Boutique, Sparkling G. We had a cool photo booth, great music (shout out to DJ LotusMoon), and a crowd of the most generous guests! We collected over 500 clothing donations that day. Between then and our actual Pop-Up Care Shop, our stock increased to over 700 pieces of clothing.

Photo credit: Rayna Mengel

For our first Care Shop, we chose to serve the women and children of SAMMON Build, a Bronx women’s shelter. If you remember, I held my Just a Little Warmer clothing drive last year for SAMMON Build and Bowery Mission. Well, since then I’ve formed a wonderful friendship with the shelter’s director Crystal Standish. She has been super supportive of all of my endeavours, so when I presented this idea to her, she was all for it!

SAMMON Build Director Crystal Standish at our Cocktails for a Cause
Photo credit: Nia Stevens

Our goal for this project is to redeem these women with the power of choice. Many of them are victims of domestic abuse, poverty, and other situations that would make anyone feel powerless. Something as simple as presenting an opportunity to choose what they WANT to wear can be empowering.

The first is to reduce the number of drugs for the cure of male sexual health depends cipla tadalafil price on body-type and body-mass. However, the pills cheap viagra without prescriptions look at this now are only sanctioned for the impotence sufferer; its intake by the normal person must be avoided. They share the perfect and straight from the source levitra free shipping comforting treatment experience that starts from mind but executed from heart. It enhances sales online viagra sex drive and relieves you from stress and aging effects. After about two months of hard work and countless brainstorm sessions, Kydee and I opened our first Care Shop for the ladies of SAMMON Build. Because it’s a pop-up shop, we don’t own an actual retail space. We held our shop at the Tolentine Zeiser Community Life Center (SAMMON Build’s parent organization). With the help of over 20 volunteers and some creative thinking, we transformed a gymnasium into a stylish shop in just 2 hours!

Heeling Soles, The Pop-Up Care Shop, Empress Varnado (between Kydee and I), and volunteers!
Photo credit: Angie Vasquez

We worked with two amazing partners who helped make our Care Shop as fabulous as we envisioned: Heeling Soles, an incredible organization that supplies footwear for people in need, and Empress Varnado on behalf of Making a Difference, Period, a movement that supplies feminine hygiene products to homeless women.

Photo credit: Angie Vasquez

Of all the great things we’ve accomplished so far with this project, the thing we are most proud of is the feedback from our shoppers. The women loved the selection of clothing and accessories, and most of all, they loved the dignity in which the items were presented to them. We wanted to create a space that relieved them of the constant reminder of their situation. The holiday season can be really rough for people going through financial and emotional hardships, especially if they have children. Nearly all of our shoppers were mothers with small children. We are so happy to have been able to bring some holiday shopping to these families.

Photo credit: Angie Vasquez

When Kydee and I joined forces back in October, we spoke of all the things we hoped to achieve. Through hard work, teamwork, and the support of wonderful folks near and far, we surpassed our expectations. In just two months we were able to raise over $2000, throw a clothing drive mixer, and open a pop-up shop! It goes to show, where there is love, there is potential. I’m still in awe of all that has happened these past few months. I’ve learned so much about myself and the world around me. Even when it feels like the opposite, we are never really alone. Despite the ugliness in the world, there is a mass of beauty that exists. There are a lot of wonderful, kind, loving people out there.