Ramapo’s Social Work Club hosted the Ruby’s Vision Clothing Drive from Oct. 11 through Nov. 22. This clothing drive is something they do as a part of the club and is a strong source of pride.
The clothing drive collects and distributes clothing to support mothers and their children that are experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness.
Ruby’s Vision Inc. stands for Rescuing Uniting Babies and You. Ruby’s Vision mission is to rebuild lives as well as communities through providing essential clothing items to those in need and help address basic and immediate necessity. Mothers and children who are facing homelessness or are at risk, use Ruby’s Vision Inc for support and to help them in times of need.
Vice President of Social Work Club, Aaliyah Marte, said in an email with The Ramapo News that, “We wanted to do some sort of drive and with the cold weather coming we decided some warm clothes would be perfect.” She said, “We chose Ruby’s Vision as they are one of our community partners and the location, Paterson, offers a wide range of people that can benefit from the drive.”
This drive is not a nationally organized event, instead something that is solely with the club. The Social Work Club has been working on this project for the past three years and tries to get more people involved every year to help educate them about the different social issues surrounding the community.
Some of the items the club asks for as a part of the drive are coats, sweaters and clothing that are ideal for the winter time. This year, unlike years past, they added gloves, socks and other items that people do not typically realize are essential to keeping warm in the winter time.
Once the drive is complete, the Social Work Club will organize all the clothing they have received into different categories to send right to Ruby’s Vision in Paterson. They personally take and drop off all the donations to the organization.
In years past, the club’s clothing drives have been a huge success with bringing together the community and raising awareness for homelessness here on campus. However, this year the club has been a little short on donations. Either way, any contribution helps the organization and provides for those that need it.
For the Ramapo community, this drive is an opportunity to give back to mothers and children in need, while also giving students an opportunity to clean out their closets and donate their old clothes to a good cause. Homelessness disproportionately affects marginalized communities and organizing the drive provides direct support to families in need. Clothing is a basic necessity and with the drive, they are able to fulfill that necessity and provide advocacy and compassion to those communities.
Marte said, “Such an initiative is not just about providing clothing; it’s about embodying the social work ethos of compassion, service and advocacy.”
To learn more about Ruby’s Vision and how you can help yourself, please check out their website at https://www.rubysvisioninc.org/
rbleich@ramapo.edu
Featured photo by Rebecca Bleich
