PLEASANTON — Hand-me-down clothing is doing double duty at Village High School, where special education students operate an award-winning clothing pantry for the city’s neediest families.
The unique vocational skills program, called The Hanger, is run by a team of moderately to severely disabled students learning to make the transition from school to work. Since the program opening two years ago, the 18-22-year-olds have gained 1,100 hours of work experience, while distributing more than 4,100 bags of clothing to families in the community — at no charge.
“We donate these things to people who don’t have them,” said Megan Brown, 19, a member of the Hanger team. “It makes me feel happy; it’s pretty sad that there are people who don’t have things. We’re helping them out. We help as a group.”
The program recently received a 2017 Dreammakers and Risktakers Award from Innovation Tri-Valley Leadership Group, which each year honors humanitarian acts, technical advances, persistence, creativity and remarkable accomplishments by students from Tri-Valley school districts and Las Positas College.
The Hanger opened in December 2015 in a small room at Village High, but now occupies more than twice that space. Ten students, all of whom learn life skills at a variety of work experiences throughout the valley, spend time at the Hanger, where they collect gently used clothing from sites throughout the city and bring it back to the school to be sorted and displayed in either bins or on hangers. Anything that needs cleaning is taken to Amador High, where students in the special education program there launder the clothing.
The clothing and shoes are available at no charge to those in need. The Hanger is generally open to the public two Wednesday each month, during which time clients may fill bags with whatever they need. New socks and underwear are distributed on an equitable basis.
In addition to the families who visit the Hanger, the project works with parent liaisons at each Pleasanton school who notify the program when any student is in need of shoes, jackets, or other clothing.
“Often I’ll have a teacher in Pleasanton say ‘I have a little girl, six 7, who needs a jacket,’” said Marla Silversmith, director of special education for the district. “We’ll take it to the school, sometimes the same day. It’s word of mouth. Our school sites all know what we do.”
The clothing comes from a range of sources — some is donated by the community directly, while some is picked up at donation sites including Hyatt House Hotel and Lydiksen Elementary School. Much of the district’s unclaimed lost-and-found clothing winds up at The Hanger.
The operation also benefits from donations, clothing drives and volunteer help from other sources, including businesses, scout troops, non-profits, churches and schools.
Families at Fairlands Elementary School donated 3,000 new pairs of socks last year, and Vintage Hills Elementary students are holding a “Captain Underpants” drive this month to provide new underwear.
Local Girl Scout troops collect and donate Halloween costumes, and many residents donate nearly new prom dresses and bridesmaid gowns. There’s a supply of donated backpacks loaded with school supplies, and a local Target store provides shopping bags used by families visiting the site.
The Hanger receives no funding; it generates some operational money by selling leftover clothing to Savers thrift store.
“It’s taken on a life of its own,” said Paige Giglio, the district’s transition teacher who first conceived the program, and now oversees its operation. “I don’t know of any other similar program run this way from a school site in the Bay Area.”
Community volunteers from groups including Blue Oaks Church and Tri-Valley Evening Rotary donate time at The Hanger, where they help the students sort through the mountains of clothing they collect, said Giglio, walking a visitor through a huge donated shipping container crammed full of bags of donations waiting to be sorted.
Among the regular volunteers are high school seniors needing community service hours for graduation. The Hanger gives those students not only an opportunity to interact with their special-needs peers, but provides insight into the needs of community members less fortunate than themselves, Giglio said.
“Our community is fairly affluent, and this is a bit of an eye-opener for some of these students,” she said.
Pleasanton’s Maria Pereira’s son Nicholas, 19, is a student at The Hanger.
“He’s always commenting that he’s helping people,” she said. “He knows people are coming in for these bags of clothing, and they all understand that they’re helping someone else.”
The program is a win-win-win for special-education students, low-income families and Pleasanton volunteers anxious to contribute to their community, Giglio said.
“Oftentimes students with special needs get a lot of support, so this is an opportunity for my students to work and give back to their community,” she said. “I think my students are very proud of what they’re doing.”
Learn more
The Hanger is at Village High School, 4645 Bernal Ave., Pleasanton. Donations of gently used clothing and shoes may be dropped off at Pleasanton’s Office of Special Education at 4661 Bernal Ave. between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. on any school day.
Tri-Valley residents may obtain clothing at no charge during The Hanger’s operating hours, generally from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. the first and third Wednesdays of the month, although the schedule may vary depending on the school calendar.
For more information, visit The Hanger’s Facebook page, or email Paige Giglio at thehanger@pleasantonusd.net.
