Valencia High School service club offers students free clothing from “Tiger’s Closet”

Valencia High School’s Service Committee is a club whose students focus on giving back. Started by presidents Neelam Mistry and Jadene Cruz two years ago, the club frequently plans events to benefit not only their school and student body, but also the greater community.

For example, they recently held a book drive and donated the items to a local elementary school, served at the Sunrise Senior Living, decorated place mats for a local homeless shelter, and re-opened “Tiger’s Closet” once again.

Tiger’s Closet is a second-hand store where Valencia High School students may take home five free pieces of clothing, shoes, or accessories. It first opened last school year. During that time, the club began holding clothing drives to collect new or gently used clothes for the purpose of donating it to families in need. They spent countless hours collecting, sorting, organizing, and hanging the hundreds of clothing items they received. The student leaders even held fundraisers in order to purchase clothing racks, hangers, and bins to store all of the items.

Then on Wednesday, November 13, Tiger’s Closet opened all day long in the multi-purpose room at Valencia. Over 230 students had the opportunity to take home 530 items of free clothes, shoes, and accessories. Teachers even brought their classes and there was a constant flow of students “shopping” before and after school, and during break and lunch.

“Overall Tiger’s Closet was a huge success and achieved its goals of serving and giving back to the local community,” shared Valencia teacher Rebecca Bonet.