Thissummer, Harding University teamed up with alumna Sydney Clyde and her non-profit organization, Reclaimed, to collect more than 14,000 T-shirts to be refashioned and sold to benefit individuals in Nicaragua.
Summer Uplift and Impact students helped gather the T-shirts, which were then sorted by size and color in preparation for shipment to Nicaragua as part of an Impact service project.
“Once the shirts arrive in Nicaragua, they will be taken to Sydney Clyde where she is teaching local women to sew,” said Monique Jacques, 2011 Harding University graduate and current member of Reclaimed. “The shirts will then be taken apart and sewn back together into a whole new creation which is the lesson Reclaimed is trying to pass along.”
According to the organization website, reclaimedclothing.com, the goal of Reclaimed is to reinvent the lives of battered individuals through their own hands. The organization takes people from abusive circumstances and teaches them how to refashion donated clothing into new marketable items.
Jacques said, in this way, Reclaimed is a living metaphor.
“Not only are we taking things that have been tossed by the wayside and creating them into something new and marketable, we’re making a stand for lives and for the greater value that can be seen in these women,” Jacques said.
This message of value, according to Jacques, is the heart of Reclaimed’s mission.
“Abovethe little stitched together T-shirts is the message that we value people, and not just telling them that but teaching it to them so that they can see the value they have themselves.”
Jacques said Reclaimed hopes to continue spreading this message of value and that T-shirts in Nicaragua are just the beginning. According to Jacques, she hopes the women will soon move on to sewing more complicated items such as dresses. The organization also has plans to go global and reach out to more people around the world.
“Eventually wewant to have sewing centers in Haiti, Guatemala and Cambodia, and we have some of the connections in place already,” Jacques said. “We’re hoping to have those running by 2014 as well as some in major cities in the United States and Canada.”
As for the Impacts students involved with the project, freshman Austin Lanier said he enjoyed having the opportunity to come together with other students to help promote Reclaimed’s mission.
“The service project was a lot of fun,” Lanier said. “Just being with other people. It was a win-win situation really. [The women] are making money and having a job making things that can be sold. I always love helping people, especially when a group makes it easy like that and I just show up and help. It was a really good idea.”
