Brooke Barone, founder of A Second Act, alongside help from Catholic Charities of Jamestown and a host of other organizational donations, organized the event as a means of aiding local families in returning their children to school. The drive contained more than 1,000 articles of clothing, various gift cards, food, backpacks and other necessities. The event received donations from a wide variety of businesses in the area including Wegmans, Save-a-Lot, Pilgrim Memorial Church, Dunkirk Solar, Catholic Charities, and Sophisticated Shoulder, which all gave donations that were able to fund food and more resources for the drive. Another local woman, Bonnie Weber of Be the Change in Jamestown, provided assistance in organizing and setting up the event, with Weber also contributing a substantial amount of donations towards the cause.

The event drew a significantly larger attendance than what was initially predicted by the organizers, with the event anticipated to run from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. however, all donations had been given out before noon. Additionally they noted that people had begun lining up for the event two hours before they were even expected to start.

“[F]amilies that you don’t typically see applying for services or needing help are now reaching out…I think everyone is struggling across the board” Barone said.

Members of Catholic Charities also noted a drastic increase in the number of individuals requesting their services over the past two years.

Line of people waiting during clothing drive Friday Submitted photo

“When we first started almost two years ago we were serving maybe 200 people every month, and now our number this month is over 600,” stated Joelle Iucalano.

Organizers spoke about why they believe there has been such a heightened need for assistance within the area, with much of it boiling down to long-time issues that have worsened with time. Members stated with wages remaining stagnant, cost of living rises, and a sharp decrease in new industry within the area that more and more families are struggling to make ends meet. They also noted increased restrictions on assistance as hurting more people within the area, and thus causing a greater struggle for many just outside of that qualifying threshold. An example is changes to what qualifies one to receive assistance from Catholic Charities.

“I think there has been a greater need lately however, we haven’t been as equipped to deal with it because our program has changed, so we can’t fit as many people in as we would like to,” Iucalano said.

Barone, Iucalano, and the rest of the others involved expressed satisfaction with the event, despite such a large quantity of people in need of assistance as, according to Barone, they had seen very few back to school drives in the area which helped to provide clothing. Organizers would like to see an increase in the accessibility to cheap second-hand clothing within the area as this event proved a clear need for it by many. They hope to be able to organize similar successful operations in the future, and are already beginning talks for a similar clothing drive for next year.