It’s that time of the year again! This time I would like to focus on warm clothing, trendy teenage apparel, and some nice play items, toys, etc, for children (roughly age 5-10). No language or visa barriers, anyone can get involved!
Items this year will be sent to my regular source for a church in Taidong servicing indigenous families in the area and I’m also looking into splitting toys and clothing for some of the great kids I met from the Malinda Schultz’s Art Workshop, in TaoShan near HsinChu.
I’ve lost count but this is about my 6-8th clothes drive in Taipei in the past few years and I’ve learned some tricks. I have to start off by saying I am not a depository for broken items that should be recycled – please put these into your local recycling bins. I take all items and generally sort through them one piece at a time in my own home so my home is not a recycling center with a conveyor belt picked through by a team of monkeys. On estimation, roughly 25-30% of all donated items are actually unacceptable for donation so kindly follow the rules below:
1) Do not donate used underwear or socks or anything that features close nude contact with a crotch (swimswuits)
2) Do not donate light colored clothing that have unwashable yellow/multi-colored stains
DO NOT DONATE – PLEASE RECYCLE THESE
3) Do not donate items with rips, holes, tears – otherwise please sew these up first
4) Do not donate electronics and other items that are BROKEN
The above when I come across them I have tried to recycle if I can but it would be nice to do it yourself and learn where your local recycling bin is, cheers!
WHAT ITEMS What I am particularly interested in are:
1) Winter Clothes – long sleeves, warm non slutty dresses, coats and jackets. Fashionable items would be great as the church has many teenagers!
2) CLEAN Blankets/bed sheets/thick rugs with no cotton stuffings – these are sorted out mainly for donation as bedding for animals to Animals Taiwan
3) Footwear – sneakers, boots, etc.
HOW DO I DROP ITEMS OFF?
CONTACT ME.This time I do not have regular use of my car so I do appreciate drop offs in HsinDien. Otherwise I will arrange for a two day period in December where I pickup all at one time but contact me first so I keep you in the loop!
HOW CAN I HELP (BASED IN TAIWAN)
1) Be a source of location for dropoff in your area
2) A sitter at a time TBC to wait for people to drop off clothes in Dongqu, peoples and monkeys with cars
3) Provider of huge boxes and such monkey tools like tape to close boxes
4) Provider of a 100 NT for boxing supplies and shipment of boxes down to Taidong
5) A person who gets the word out about the drive!
6) Anyone who wants to help sort through the clothes.
If you want to get these sent directly down yourselves let me know beforehand so I can give them a heads up The address would be: 康樂福音教會 台東市康樂路105巷49號
HOW CAN I HELP (NOT BASED IN TAIWAN)
I know a lot of my friends are not in Taiwan or even Asia, and I hope that you can also organize similiar events to help people or animals out. Best to even ask your local church or community center, Salvation Army, Food Bank, etc. There are tons of organizations that need help and volunteers, especially now with the economy the way it is they are losing a lot of sponsorship dollars!
When I have some more time, I am starting to do a write-up on another site on how to get started on a more proactive lifestyle that will change the world around you for the better, one step at a time. Stay tuned, thanks!
handful of sapphires 
Great project and I want to get more involved.
Posted by Gary Smoke | December 3, 2011, 9:47 am