Providence College classroom turned into thrift store

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Students at Providence College have introduced a new twist to a clothes recycling program.

It all started freshman year for Mary Gifford, now a senior at Providence College.

“A bunch of my friends and I would trade clothes and go back and forth,” Friartown’s Closet Founder Mary Gifford said. “I noticed it was a trend to leave garbage bags of clothes outside.”

The trend that turned into an idea lives in the Feinstein Building on campus with both men’s and women’s clothing.

But the store didn’t just appear overnight.

“The business model was the big kind of pitch,” Gifford said. “Over the summer, I interviewed local consignment shops in my town and I called different colleges with similar business models.”

The college approved Gifford’s business model, with funding provided by research grants to turn her dream into a reality, flipping an old classroom into a thrift store.

“There is a big fast fashion crisis, especially on campus, so I think being able to utilize things more than once for different purposes definitely has its advantages,” PC junior Emma Pszeniczny said.

And the store isn’t just contained to campus, as Gifford and her crew hosted a community pop-up shop off campus, with all of the clothing free to residents in the area.

“It was really fulfilling to just give back to the people who need it most,” she said.

The students said bags of clothes are welcome from anywhere, including those off-campus.

Store credit is given if volunteers that work at the store decide the clothing can be sold.

“Being able to give back is really important to us because there is something for everyone here I think,” Pszeniczny said. “We take everything, so the stuff we can’t sell in store we will donate.”