The Deerfield Thrift Shop has been a tradition for the past three years, taking place once again this winter. The shop leaders worked to donate proceeds to the Cancer Connection Club and helped Hadley Spater ’25 support a holiday gift drive.
Spater, in the spirit of the holiday season this year, organized a gift drive to take place during the three week period between the start of Winter Term and Winter Break. This was done in partnership with the Greenfield Salvation Army with the goals of collecting gifts for underprivileged children and families in Franklin County.
This year’s Thrift Shop was run by Campbell Fealy ’24, Margaret Melnik ’24, Hawk Okpokwasili ’25, Finn Knight ’25, Eddy Rena ’24, Sophia Sotirhos ’25, and Spater. This seasonal event traditionally donates its proceeds to Salvation Army along with any leftover clothes. This year the Thrift Shop partnered with the Deerfield Cancer Connection Club, run by Sotirhos, and they plan to donate all proceeds to Cancer Connection in Greenfield.
Over the past three years, the four Deerfield Thrift Shops have raised around $10,000 for charitable organizations. In order to organize the event, the team met regularly, often in smaller groups, to plan, coordinate, organize, sort, and tag. Fealy said, “I don’t think people realized how much work goes into it.
Because this is the third year students hosted a Deerfield Thrift Shop, the leaders decided to expand the scope of the project. Spater said, “The goal has always been the same; just donating to a local cause. This year we donated to Cancer Connection instead of a shelter in Greenfield because it’s more personal.” They were looking for a new cause to donate to, and they agreed that Sotirhos and her club would find an important cause that would help as many people as possible.
Spater was especially motivated to serve the community beyond Deerfield in other ways and decided to organize a gift drive with Dean of Ethical & Spiritual Life and Philosophy and Religion Teacher Jan Flaska. Spater said, “I’d seen a similar gift drive in my community at home, and I was thinking of a way we could get involved as a school with Franklin County.”
Spater and Mr. Flaska went to the Salvation Army in Greenfield and met with Lieutenant Paul Leslie, who was in charge of running the gift drive on the Salvation Army end. She shared, however, that they have not received many donations In response to the lack of gifts, Spater explained, “We’re taking the leftover clothes from the Thrift shop and we’re bringing them to the Salvation Army.” Spater noted that though the gift drive team isn’t bringing as many gifts as anticipated to the Salvation Army, they are bringing clothes from the Thrift Shop., with the help of the Ski Team.
When asked about holiday gift distribution to the Salvation Army, Mr. Flaska shared, “For holidays, there’s a lot of gift giving, so we pack things up for them then to distribute to families that would welcome [the gifts]. This includes the toy drive that Hadley initiated.” He explained that the Salvation Army welcomes the help of students, and the surplus of the Thrift Shop helped for the Salvation Army even more despite the lack of gifts.
Fealy said the leadership group decided to delay the event this year due to the influx of new leadership.
She said, “It was hard [to get] everyone on board and organizing everything.” Both the gift drive and the Thrift Shop struggled with getting their projects finished on time. The Thrift shop managed to work around this, as they planned for the event to happen after break and at the start of Turkey Term in hopes of receiving a larger donation of clothing.
Spater shared her thoughts about possible futures of the gift drive, saying, “Next year, I want to do it in a more organized fashion.” She addressed areas for improvement for next year, such as making announcements closer to the date rather than before Fall Break. Additionally Fealy mentioned how having more juniors on the teams will make for a smoother transition into the 2024-2025 school year. Along with planning for a Spring Term Thrift Shop, the group is also discussing the possibility of a smaller scale event during Winter Term.
Though Fealy has acknowledged the difficulties in organizing the thrift shop this year, she shared, “I think, for everyone, it was a good learning experience. There are better ways of managing it in terms of organization, but towards the end of it, I think we all were super excited.”