SOUTH RIVER–Creating a space for students in need to shop for clothes, South River High School’s newly established Ram Runway Club held a grand opening for its donation room.
Special Education Teacher and Club Advisor Jenai Damatta said, “The Ram Runway [room] was established as a place to recycle clothing and accessories, as well as make donations of new items available to the South River High School community grades K-12.”
Damatta said the Ram Runway Club was created this year and has 25 members.
“Our mission is to have the South River community, businesses, students and high school staff work together in donating the basic clothing and accessory essentials for any students who may be in need,” Damatta said. “No forms are required for students to ‘shop the runway.’ All items have been donated and in turn, all items are free of charge to all students.”
Complete with a freshly painted “Ram Runway” mural and a red ribbon, club members, faculty, Damatta and Superintendent Sylvia Zircher attended the Ram Runway room’s opening ceremony outside of room 107 at South River High School.
“The Ram Runway exemplifies South River High School’s mission of the five core values, Respect, Responsibility, Honesty, Service and Kindness,” Damatta said.
Club members will be organizing the room, handling incoming donations, dressing mannequins and creating displays, according to Damatta.
“As with any organization, many administrative duties are required to keep things going,” Damatta said. “Therefore, club members will also be involved with fundraising, record keeping, event planning, writing articles, announcements, creating promotional videos, photography, maintaining an updated school bulletin board and much more.”
If someone wants to donate clothes, Damatta said donation bins will be located at the main entrance of the high school. The club accepts donations of accessories and gently worn and washed clothing.
Damatta said the club hopes to have more bins set up at the other schools in the future.
“Anyone is able to donate items. I have gotten many donations from local businesses as well as through word of mouth. We are looking for items for students in grades K-12,” Damatta said. “We hope to have all kinds of clothing and accessories. From casual to formal attire, new shoes, new sneakers, outerwear, shorts, t-shirts, pants, suits, prom dresses, the list goes on and on.”
After thanking Damatta for all her hard work, Zircher said, “I think we had this vision to be able to have a place where we could recycle clothing, it’s not for any particular reason you don’t need to need clothing in order to come here and take something from the Ram Runway but it’s really just a great way to be able to share within our community and just to be able to have some access right here in our school.”
For more information about the Ram Runway room, visit www.srivernj.org or call 732-613-4000.
Contact Vashti Harris at [email protected].