Muncie, Ind.--- On Oct. 19, Sophomore Brooke Bailey hosted an event titled ‘Get Thrifty, Save the Planet’. Bailey hosted the event in the Johnson A lobby, where she is a Residence Assistant (RA). Since Bailey is an RA, she has to put on an event once a month for the individuals in the dorm.
“As an RA we’re supposed to have an event theme every month. This month's event theme is civic engagement and I wanted to engage people by encouraging them to participate in their community” said Bailey.
The event included Bailey taking donations and in return people who donated would either receive a recyclable pencil pouch or tote bag, depending on the amount they donated. The donations of whatever people donated would go to the Muncie Mission Homeless Shelter. Bailey’s goal for this event was for individuals to think more critically about sustainable fashion, how fast fashion can impact our environment and giving back to the local community.
“It's trying to encourage people to donate to Muncie Mission, which is a homeless shelter in Muncie,” Bailey said.
To go along with her event, Bailey created a PowerPoint presentation to quiz students who donated on the impact of fashion in our world and economy. As an architecture student, Bailey was learning about the impacts of fashion just as the other students were.
“Making the presentation was nice to do because I was learning with it as well. It was nice because it doesn’t have anything to do with my major and I'm learning from this just as much as other people” commented Bailey.
After realizing just how toxic the fashion industry can be to our environment Bailey realized that her event would be educational and hopefully inspirational.
“Instead of donating your clothes to Goodwill or Plato’s Closet where you think you're giving to your community. Try to branch out, it’s just as simple to donate to a homeless shelter,” Bailey said.
Out of all the things, there was to learn from her event, Bailey hoped that at the end of the day people would decide to donate to more local and community businesses instead of major corporations.
Contact Jovi Taylor with comments at jovi.taylor@bsu.edu
