Happy October everyone! It's wild that there are only about five and a half weeks left in the semester! It has been difficult to find volunteer opportunities so far this semester, given COVID-19 and all but I am glad that yesterday I was able to volunteer at a clothing drive to benefit House of Tulip.
House of Tulip is an organization that is working towards housing solutions and eventually paths to homeownership for homeless trans people in New Orleans. They currently reached their fundraising goal to purchase a multiplex house to house up to 10 trans homeless people at a time. I stumbled across House of Tulip online when looking for volunteering in the Spring, but back then they weren't at the stage of needing volunteers yet so I decided to follow them online. They finally put out a post about needing volunteers about two weeks ago and I jumped at the opportunity to get my name on the list.
 |
| Ready for donations!! |
As a person in the LGBTQ+ community, their vision resonated with me. In college, I was president of an LGBTQ+ STEM organization called oSTEM that worked towards creating opportunities and space for our members to connect with established professionals in the field that they were interested in, find internships with our partners, as well as host professional development workshops. Needless to say, I have always been an advocate for the community that I'm a part of and I have been dying to get involved in an organization run by and is for those in the LGBTQ+ community here in New Orleans. House of Tulip is the first of its kind in the south and I knew that I needed to be a part of it.
 |
| Featured on the House of Tulip Instagram Story |
I arrived at the clothing drive at 9 am ready to go! I met the co-founders, Mariah and Milan, as well as other members of their board, Ben and Camilla. People started rolling up around 9:30 with bags, bins, and boxes of clothing, shoes, and accessories. I and the other volunteers (including Kendall in our class) donned some gloves, went through each article, looking for stains or holes, and then refolded and put them into their appropriate bins (tops, bottoms, outerwear, accessories, dresses, and shoes). About an hour and a half in, two of the large bins were already full and had to be closed, loaded up into one of the board members' vehicle, and taken to storage.
It was incredible to see just how many people had come by to bring items or even just say hello and learn about House of Tulip. Before the drive was over, the leaders had to send out an announcement to ask people to stop bringing clothes because they had no more storage space! This is such a huge achievement for their first-ever clothing drive. It was clear how supportive the New Orleans community had been and made me feel happy knowing that House of Tulip is one step closer to getting where they want to be. This clothing drive was important for them so they could create a community closet. This benefits the trans people they are working to provide resources for because some struggle to find and/or can't afford gender-affirming clothing. They are truly doing the work and getting the recognition they deserve.
Comments
Post a Comment