U of M students hope to raise Underwearness, encourage others to give the gift of gotch

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This article was published 22/08/2023 (836 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A group of U of M students is hoping to help Siloam Mission stock up on socks and underwear donations through word-of-mouth, social media and a clever name for the effort.

The five participants — Allison Balasko, Hiwot Jonk, Jesse Shen, Joao Fidencio da Silva and Samuel Akinola — in the university’s President’s Student Leadership Program launched the Underwearness Project this week.

“We had to select a community need and try to address that need and work together to start a project,” Jonk said. “We noticed that there were a lot of unaddressed needs within homeless shelters, so we wanted to help out.”

From there, the team contacted Siloam Mission. After discussing gaps in the organization’s services, the project was born.

“It’s not the first thing that would come to your mind when you’re thinking of donating clothing, and it has to be brand-new. So, we’re just trying to spread awareness about that,” Jonk said.

Luke Thiessen, a communications specialist with Siloam Mission, said socks and underwear are among the most difficult items for the organization to collect. He said it’s not uncommon for Siloam to go through more than 100 pairs in a day in its Clothing Room “free store.”

“We’ll take in more than 100 customers to the free store every day and they may all take a pair or two on a given day if we have the supply,” Thiessen said.

In past campaigns, many people opted to donate socks, but fewer did so with underwear. Thiessen thinks the initiative’s catchy name will help change that.

“My theory is that underwear is a strange thing to buy for a stranger,” Thiessen said. “It’s not weird. You can go buy a multipack of underwear and it makes a huge difference for somebody.”

On Sunday, the Underwearness team will be stationed at Superstore at 3193 Portage Ave. to promote the project and collect donations from shoppers. People can contribute through monetary donations or by purchasing items directly from Siloam Mission’s Amazon Wishlist.

cierra.bettens@freepress.mb.ca