2016 Goodwill Glitter Gala and Fashion Show, a blog post by EcoGoodz, a used clothing supplier

Last year’s Glitter Gala and Fashion Show helped raise $278,000 for Goodwill Seattle’s job and education training programs. This year, however, donations totaled $435,000! Here’s some basic information about the Glitter Gala and Fashion Show:

The Glitter Gala is Seattle Goodwill’s only fundraising event. This year all proceeds support Goodwill’s High School Completion programs, which help people grow into their futures.

Last year, with your support, we served over 8,700 people at 10 Job Training & Education Centers. Programs are designed to help people overcome their obstacles and provide a hand up, not a hand out, as they work towards employment and a career. Jobs change lives by providing a means to be independent, secure and confident. (source)

Each piece featured in the fashion show was created using donated items. This year’s theme was ‘Take Root and Bloom’. Here are our favorites:

We love how whimsical this piece is! It’s almost hard to believe that this dress and its accessories were constructed out of donated used clothing!

In addition to raising much-needed funds, the Glitter Gala proves that used clothing has value and purpose. Though secondhand, it can be high fashion, glitzy, and fun! This is an important point to recognize and internalize. Far too often clothing is discarded as worthless. It finds its way into the municipal waste stream and eventually, landfills, where it does no one any good.

As this year draws to a close and a new one opens before us, we hope you’ll take the time to evaluate your clothes-shopping and wearing habits and attitudes. We hope that you’ll try to be a little more careful in your purchases; whether that means shopping secondhand, buying less, or sourcing fair trade/organic/sustainable clothing. And when the time comes to clean out your closet, we hope you’ll remember to donate your gently used clothing items and find textile recycling outlets for the mismatched socks, torn or stained clothing, and fabric scraps.