On Thursday, November 13th, 2014, a student led environmental action team at New Vista High School called the Earth Task Force (ETF) implemented a Clothing Swap event during the school’s hour long lunch. ETF worked a couple weeks prior to the event to create a comedic promotional video to grab the attention of the students at New Vista. The Clothing Swap Team then brought some of their own used clothes to kick off the event. The Clothing Swap was very successful, multiple students brought in their used clothes of good quality and took home wonderful new finds.

ETF held the clothing swap to promote and practice the recycling of valuable resources and materials. In this generation, shopping is a concept that entails ONLY buying new clothes. Often our society gets stuck in a cycle of consumerism, constantly buying new things and throwing the old in the trash. ETF wanted to break this cycle and promote the underrated sport of thrifting by doing it at school!

There was a calm before the storm, then the school swarmed the gym embracing the concept of new, and free clothes! A good number of students showed up to the event. ETF was ecstatic about the great community involvement. Some brought clothes, and some didn’t, but either way clothes were swapped. By the end of lunch period, there were two trash bags of clothes left. These were donated to Goodwill, a thrift store that provides used clothes and other objects at cheap prices.

ETF is very grateful to those students that brought in clothes and those who showed up and supported the event. A special shout out to the video teacher, Andrew Pfouts, for lending ETF filming equipment, and to his students that helped to edit the promotional video. We hope that the students and staff will continue to support future recycling of clothes.

Written by Flora Rotner and Rayna Miller

The Earth Task Force (ETF) is a Cottonwood Institute-supported program at New Vista High School in Boulder, CO designed to give students an opportunity to take the lead to implement sustainability initiatives at their school.