Lion’s Closet is a free online clothing store run by the State High National Honor Society (NHS) chapter. It is mainly managed by Emily Stapleton, a senior at State High and a member of the National Honor Society.
“It is a Google Site with different tabs for sweaters, sweatshirts, jeans, pants, etc. There is a serial number for every single item, and you’d go into the Google Form and put your name and email with the serial number of the item. And we’ll go and package it, and put it in the Lower Main Office for you to pick up,” Stapleton said.
Stapleton was elected as the officer for Lion’s Closet last year.
“I started in NHS as a junior, and I would go to the workdays that we had, to organize everything and get the new donations into the Lion’s Closet and get the website up and running. I was elected to be the officer for NHS to oversee the Lion’s Closet. So this year, I’ve delegated some leadership positions to help me with the ordering, managing and also social media and marketing in general,” Stapleton said.
Evie Zhang is also a member of NHS and the officer for the Peer Tutoring Center.
“I like that NHS is a very service oriented organization, we do Lion’s Closet, which serves the entire school community, we do turkeys for teachers, holiday cookies for teachers, and that environment of contributing,” Zhang stated. Community service is a core component of the NHS, and Lion’s Closet is a way for NHS to give back to the community.
There are many members of NHS that help out with Lion’s Closet.
“There’s so many of us who contributed, whether it’s sorting orders, whether it’s making an electronic record of them, whether it’s sealing with the order of the things in there,” Zhang said.
Lion’s Closet receives many orders from students in need. However, some students do not know about it, which is why it was advertised through WSCH announcements.
“Last year, [the announcements were] definitely successful, I think people didn’t really know about [Lion’s Closet] at the beginning of last year and it really launched in the spring. The more awareness it gets, the more successful it’ll be,” Stapleton said.
However, like most projects, Lion’s Closet has its own challenges.
“There are a lot of donations, which is really great, but we don’t have enough space. Lion’s Closet itself is a really small closet,” Stapleton said.
“Lion’s Closet is a big project. Sometimes there are things that have to go on for multiple years. Like, in recent years, they’ve changed organization systems more than once, which is challenging,” Zhang said. While it is a big project, Lion’s Closet has many students that work to make it better and solve these challenges.
Lion’s Closet is a safe and anonymous way for people to get necessary clothing items that they need.
“It’s a private way for someone to get something they need, no one will know it’s from Lion’s Closet but their need is still met,” Stapleton said. Especially with approaching cold weather, many students are in extreme need of warm clothing, which is a basic human need. Lion’s Closet will help alleviate this issue.
If you want to support Lion’s Closet but can’t donate, you can support them on social media. “Follow @scasdlionscloset on Instagram!” Stapleton said.
