RHODE ISLAND – Rockland Community Church was approached by a representative of St. Pauly Textile about possibility of hosting a shed on our property. St. Pauly is a for-profit company that distributes used clothing to organizations across the world to meet their clothing needs. We were uncertain at first, but then we learned of the opportunities the shed would provide. St. Pauly provides the shed free of charge and gives us access to the shed to use any clothes that may meet a need in our local community. They also allow us to use the shed as a collection site for clothing drives we may put on. A volunteer from our church ensures clothes don’t pile up blocking the donation port and St. Pauly regularly picks up the clothes donated and will clear out any materials dropped off that don’t belong. Additionally, we will be receiving regular compensation from the estimated clothes donated, which we will be putting to use in our missions work. This has been a great development for a small church like ours, which is limited in the volunteers and funds that we could call upon in attempting to do something like this on our own. It was amazing to see how the shed filled up in the first week and our hope is that it will build awareness of our presence in the community. 

Submitted by Tom Loghry