Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
SOARING demand for secondhand private school uniforms from cash-strapped families has led to a mum expanding her charity-fundraising efforts.
Over the past two months, Millie Cogswell has been collecting donations of grown-out-of clothing from across the kingdom and putting them up for sale at her Saar home in a bid to raise funds for good causes.
The fundraiser, ‘Charity St Chris Uniform Sale’, started on July 11 with around 100 pieces up for grabs, set up in a little socially-distanced shop in her covered garage space. The mother-of-three put her own children’s past St Christopher’s School uniforms up for sale too.
“As we knew we would be eventually leaving the island, we decided that we wanted to put our outgrown school uniforms to good use by either donating or selling them for charity,” said the former architect.
“Due to having been gifted quite a few uniform items by our very generous neighbours in the past; we had a collection of some wonderful items so an idea of a garage sale was born.”
She put overhead fans and hand sanitiser for shoppers to use in her outdoor shop and masks were a must.
Before shoppers visited, she wheeled over the rack of clothing and carried shelves out. She started with one rack and shelf, both at a third of their capacity.
“That is when people started offering their donations,” said the mother of Sofiya, 12, Arthur, eight, and 20-month-old Phillip. “The support of other parents was almost instant. We started being offered outgrown uniforms and within a week we were not a “little” shop any more.
“Very quickly, the number of shelves doubled and they became too heavy to carry. That’s when I set up the sale indoors, in our outside driver’s room that is quite small but fits everything in just about right.”
Since then, Millie introduced 15-minute time slots on busy days so that people could have the room to themselves and plenty of time to shop.
It is currently stocked with thousands of items covering the whole range of St Christopher’s School uniforms and whatever items she receives from friends with pupils at the British School of Bahrain.
With schools finally reopened, this couldn’t have come at a better time for parents to snap up affordable uniforms, she added.
Millie said: “I recently read a statistic that in the UK 1.4 million wearable school uniforms are thrown away each year. That left me speechless and heartbroken.
“The St Chris School that my kids have attended for the past six years had quite the opposite attitude and a secondhand uniform shop was always present on their premises.
“But as a result of Covid-19 and the closure of schools, the shop was not available.
“This is where a community spirit evolved. We also hoped it would help in these uncertain times when sadly too many jobs have been lost and salaries cut back.
“Nobody wants to spend hundreds of dinars on new sets of uniform if they don’t have to, only to then find themselves leaving the island shortly after because of the work situation.”
Her shop is now stocked with summer and winter kits ranging in sizes from three years to large teens, including items such as shoes and hats. Millie has received more donations and has also been driving around Bahrain to pick them up.
So far animal charity the BSPCA and RIA Institute Bahrain, which has been operating here for 20 years and cares for students with learning and developmental disorders along with able-bodied children, have shared BD910.
Millie has also collaborated with the BSPCA who have donated their supply of uniforms from their thrift store.
Aside from her secondhand sale shop, which will run until September 13, Millie has been staging other fundraisers for the two causes.
She has been selling a selection of plants such as Aloe Vera, spider, money and snake plants, and has been receiving green-fingered advice from Baloo’s Buddies founder Sarah Clarke. She will pass on whatever plants are left to sell to the RIA.
Millie also has a ‘Dates for Charity’ project where she offers boxes of fresh dates from her trees for a small donation. She recently collected BD160 for Bahrain Animal Rescue Centre with her Walk for Woofs campaign where she covered 200 miles (322 kilometres) in three weeks.
She said: “We dare not set targets as every dinar raised helps a great deal and is very much appreciated.”
For details on how to help, contact Millie Cogswell on Facebook.
