Ukraine Clothing Drive Davis Enterprise article 4/10/26

STREET: Wardrobe helps Ukraine

The Wardrobe held its second Ukraine clothing drive on April 4, in the parking lot behind the boutique at 231 D St. Wardrobe proprietor Heather Caswell had been working tirelessly to organize the event and gathered her staff shortly before they started, assigning various tasks and sharing some of what it took to pull this off, from letting people know about parking and encouraging them to find a place so they could stay and enjoy the music and food, to reminding staff how important it will be to try and raise funds for shipping the donated clothes.

“That’s part of my role,” Heather said, adding that she will be “joining the Rotary Club” in addition to having already been “the founder of the Davis Community Vision Alliance and The Wardrobe, and so this is like a triple, in terms of partnership.” She complimented her staff member Anna Shevchenko for “doing an incredible job of getting things to where they need to be” before sharing that she and Anna had been collaborating on this effort and that Anna’s mother, “had escaped the war” and was in attendance as well, and that it happened to be her birthday, at which point Heather paused to ask a staff member to add water to the lovely red roses brought for the occasion. I later learned that Heather found Anna “instrumental in supporting” her and The Wardrobe, and when I was introduced to Anna’s daughter Paulina, Heather shared that she had “been watching her grow up and she’s super supportive” of all the events as well. “It’s like a total family,” Heather commented, “and sometimes it takes more than a village.” 

It certainly felt like more than a village had gathered to support this important cause and when I spoke with Anna, who has worked at The Wardrobe with Heather for three years, it became quite clear just how much this show of support meant. 

Anna explained that their goal is to make people happy. “Now it’s very difficult situation in Ukraine, a lot of people lost family. Women lost husbands, and we help families, women that have children” and had to move and cannot “afford the very expensive rent” here. They would also be shipping the donations collected during the drive to children in orphanages, to senior citizens, and to those who had to relocate to other parts of Ukraine after their homes had been destroyed.

One of the musicians, Max Hordiichuk, with the assistance of his son Matt, a DSH senior who translated for his father, told me that, “the war between Russia and Ukraine is still ongoing and we are trying to fundraise some resources to support the families who came from that occupied territory of Ukraine by Russia to the Western part.” The money raised that day would help those who escaped as well as those still there. Max explained that they had been living for almost two years in what had become occupied territory under Russia. Matt added, “The only stuff the Russians let us to take with us was only one bag, and we had to put all the life into that bag, which is impossible.” And now they are trying to support those who are in the same situation as they had been. Looking at this young man who was in the process of choosing colleges, you would never know that he had already seen more pain and hardship than any teenager should. I watched as he helped carry bags of clothes from people’s cars and into the building where they were being sorted.

“It’s an enormous amount of volunteerism” Heather said, “and the landlord has allowed me to take this space for the weekend which has made it more efficient and more organized essentially…I think we’re a lot better organized than we were last year because we have the inside of this space…we collected 100,000 dollars estimated retail clothing a year ago, and I helped collect almost 10,000 but it was around 8,500 for shipping, so it’s my hope to do something similar if possible.” 

As usual, Heather had gathered strong women to help in this worthy cause. “Laura Grindstaff, she’s the Chair of the Sociology department has stepped up to help me and the Alliance, so it’s the Alliance, it’s the Rotary, and it’s Anna and her wonderful team and my wonderful team here at The Wardrobe.”   Heather shared that she is “officially becoming a Rotarian on the 13th” and that she will be, “the person in charge of the clothing drive for the Ukraine, so they’ve actually created a committee” and she’s hoping to “bring along a lot more women to join the Rotary…That’s a big part of my wish.”

And since the Rotary was part of the clothing drive, board member and president elect Donna Prebys was there, collecting donations from the steady flow of generous people who made their way in. “This is my first year involved in this function” Donna told me. “We decided to kind of partner up with The Wardrobe and the funds that we’re gonna get are gonna help with shippin’ all the stuff over…so any kind of taxable donations will be paying for that. It’s very expensive, obviously.”

Other volunteers included Karen Beardsley, Director Emerita of Global Professional Programs, former Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya and Fulbright Scholar in Bhutan. Helping her were two Humphrey Fellows, one from Bhutan and one from Macedonia, turning the effort into a truly international one. This was their community service, part of the professional development program among other activities in which they participate. Karen used to be the director of the program and had just retired. She was helping with the clothing drive as part of the Davis Community Vision Alliance, and she explained that they are “kind of a grassroots” group she believes is made up of all women involved in “community activism” such as the clothing drive.

The rooms in which the clothes were being collected and sorted had been “gifted for the weekend” by Dowling Properties, yet another part of the village effort which Heather thought was “very cool.” Several volunteers were helping with this part of the drive as well, “trying to hurry” the clothes overseas Heather told me as we walked through rooms where “some of the magic” was happening. She remembered “doing the sorting” all herself when she first started out with her consignment store years ago, so this felt like “a full circle.”  

Back outside, a couple was dancing to Ukrainian music as hope and yellow and blue balloons fluttered in the breeze. We gathered to hear Heather say that she was “honored to be doing all this work with…amazing people” and that “this community event is a labor of love that brings enormous support to orphans and seniors in Ukraine.”

She added that last month, “the New York Times published a beautiful pictorial commentary by Alyona Synenko titled, ‘In Odessa, Dressing Up Is Living,’ about the people of Ukraine dressing up in the face of the devastating war that Russia started four years ago.”

Synenko wrote, “’We dress to show not only who we are but also who we want to be. But we also dress out of defiance; to look fabulous is to deny the power of any dreariness around us. We dress for a better world. Maybe that can conjure it into being or just manifest a smile out of the others around us.’”  

Heather continued. “In our small way the people here today and our sponsors, the Rotary Club of Davis and the Community Vision Alliance are stepping up to help the embattled people of the Ukraine, look and deny the power of the dreariness around them by feeling more fabulous even for a few moments. It’s so special to have so many folks sharing delightful Ukrainian culture, food and live music here in downtown Davis.”

She thanked all the volunteers who helped make the event possible, emphasizing that it would not have happened, “if it weren’t for lovely Anna” who assisted with the packing and shipping of the clothes overseas, “actively for more than a year.”

And of course, “it takes financial donations to help for the very expensive shipping to help get these clothes and essential personal care items into the hands of such appreciative and hopeful folks in the Ukraine.”

After the event, Heather shared that their, “Ukrainian Clothing drive went really well...We collected over $5,000 in cash donations to help pay for shipping and about $55,000 worth of clothing. Hooray!”

She added that they hadn’t received many donations “for orphan children ages 5-15, so we decided to use some of our donations to purchase good quality underwear, t-shirts, and socks at Costco. If you would like to contribute for that purpose you can drop off a check at The Wardrobe made out to The Rotary Club of Davis.”

She concluded that they “are super grateful for the generosity of the Davis community.  Thank you to all the Ukrainian volunteers and everyone that showed up to help make a difference and clothe Ukraine in love.” 

“Because all you need is love…”

You can still donate at The Wardrobe, Wednesday through Saturday, noon to 6 p.m.

By: Karen Levy