Big Apple trip has students looking for sweet returns in thrift shop fundraiser
Marketing students organized a thrift shop in the N-building on March 27 to support a trip to New York City, which will let them to get a taste of the Big Apple for the first time after the pandemic.
As soon as the doors of the event opened, students and professors were drawn to room N204 to make their selections. Inside the room, lots of colourful clothes were neatly arranged on tables. The organizers greeted everyone with smiles as they entered
The proceeds from the event will help fund a trip in the fall. Their goal was to raise $250.
“It’s organized by the students for the students,” Alaoui Mehdi Sossey, the executive of the African Student Association, said in a written response.
The price of clothes ranged from one dollar to $20. The thrift shop allowed college students to help marketing students raise donations while finding clothes they like at an affordable price.
The work is not as simple as it seems. Alaoui said it requires careful checking to ensure the received clothes are clean and prepared for sale.
“We make sure the clothes that came here were clean. They didn’t have a tear or something,” he said. “I don’t want anyone to buy something here and then realize when they get home that they can’t wear it.”
According to Liz Babiak, the program coordinator of advertising and marketing communication management, the trip is scheduled to take place around September to October.
The trip will be attended primarily by students from the digital marketing communications and advertising and marketing communications programs. Around 35 students will go to New York to attend advertising conferences.
It is an industry conference related to marketing, communications and digital innovation. It will provide students the opportunity to communicate with experienced industry professionals.
Baiak said she is very excited about the upcoming trip.
“This is our first return back since the beginning of the pandemic and we’re so excited to be bringing these students to NYC,” she said.
Further details of the trip are still under discussion and planning.
“We don’t have any conference information yet. But it is a long-standing conference, and the program has gotten to New York for a number of years,” she said.
Alaoui said they will host similar events before September to raise funds.
“We are going to get as much money as we can right now,” he said. “For the clothes we have left, we are going to organize another thrift shop like this.”
Emeric Wall, a student of advertising and marketing who had finished shopping, expressed his intention to donate clothes at the next thrift shop.
He hoped that his donation would assist his friends, who organized the event, in completing the fundraising as quickly as possible.
