Keeping our tamariki wrapped up warm over winter is crucial for well-being, but it’s getting tougher for families to afford. Luckily, there’s an affable army of volunteers in Ōtautahi lending a hand. As Seven Sharp’s Rachel Parkin discovers, each pre-loved clothing parcel is a gift, not a handout.
Scarf bright blue, lippy bright red, eyes as bright as buttons, Claire Hampton was raring to go.
“Hi, guys. What have you got for me today?” she called to peals of laughter from the other volunteers.
The merriment was not because the question was funny but because this was a woman made for our camera, with entertainment value as big as her heart.
“I’ll just get my list out and my lollies,” she said, heading from "Betty Boop" the blue Nissan Cube to the "pick-up" container.
She has been driving parcels of pre-loved kids’ clothes around Garden City for Clothed in Love, her passion project for the past four years.
“Yep, this is me. I really enjoy it,” the plucky pensioner said, navigating Betty Boop right and then left on two busy roads.
“I feel like I'm giving back, and I'm retired now, so I've got time to do it.”
Sometimes courier duty takes Hampton two hours, sometimes four, but that never bothers her. She reckons she is the lucky one.
“I just love, you know, seeing the families when they drop them off,” Hampton said.
“Sometimes I deliver, and the children are there. I love it because they get all excited and jump up and down. Then, when they see they've got a book in the pack, they usually get really excited.
“And I do pop a little lollipop in for them just for a treat,” she said with a wink.
At Clothed in Love, they’re all about making kids feel special. Each pre-loved clothing parcel is a gift, and Hampton is just one spoke in a big, beautiful wheel of volunteers.
“I love our volunteers,” said co-founder Louisa Stewart from their four-container base in outer Christchurch.
Rewind four years, and the charity was her pipe dream.
“So, you started as friends?” I asked her and co-founder Kim Steetskamp.
“Yeah, so we met, then were neighbours, and our families have just grown up together. We're just good mates,” said Stewart.
Then came a Facebook post from a local preschool looking for jackets and shoes.
“And my husband turned and said to me, ‘Hey, how are there kids in Christchurch who don't have these things?’ and I was like, ‘Oh, I have got an idea!’.”
Stewart had the passion, and Steetskamp had the workspace but not the time.
Within minutes, though, she was onboard, too.
“It grabbed my heart,” she laughed. “I was like, ‘Oh, that’s really cool. Can I help? I'll make time for that in my life.'”
Four years on, Steetskamp calls the charity her “heart hobby”, and boy has it blossomed.
More than 100 volunteers help out on different days as clothing sorters, packers, couriers, and collection points. Christchurch folks from different strokes share one passion — getting kids the clothing they need.
There is no catch, no questions asked, no money exchanged.
Families or social agencies in need jump onto the Clothed in Love website and tick what they need.
“They fill in a form… super quick, super easy, and they can choose exactly what they want. Sometimes they can write wee notes like, ‘Oh, my son really likes dinosaurs', or, 'My daughter is really into rainbows and the colour pink’.
"Then we make sure that that pack is for that child, and it's totally a gift and never a handout,” said Stewart.
For those with clothes to donate, there are just a few rules.
“No holes, stains, rips and just really practical. We love hoodies and track pants, socks and undies and hats and things like that to really bless these children in need,” said Stewart.
“To get them through winter,” I said. “Because she’s cold.”
“Yeah, exactly, it is cold.”
Stewart and Steetskamp have seen the pointy end of poverty as trained teachers — such as parents who can't afford to clothe their kids.
"And that's heartbreaking," said Stewart. "But what we wanted to do was bring the joy back into it and realised that if we can get a community helping a community, people helping people, families helping families, then we could do something amazing."
And I tell you what – from where this mum is sitting – they’ve done it.
If you want to help or donate some pre-loved clothes, contact the team at Clothed in Love. It truly is a village.
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