Spring of Tampa Bay

Day 3 of our Ruskin journey, we made our way to the Spring of Tampa thrift store. We did some service and helped them out by sorting through donated clothes. We went through a huge pile that the woman in charge, Connie, told us had been there for a month, and that they haven't had the help to get through the donations. During our time there, we were able to hang clothes up on racks and then transport those clothes to the actual thrift store where we hung them up for customers to buy. As soon as we got the clothes out on the sales floor, people were swarming them to get the deals from the store. It was amazing to see how much this thrift store was helping the community, and it was even better to know that the profits go toward the Spring of Tampa Bay organization, which helps out women and children who are victims of domestic violence. At the end of the day, Connie told us that she hadn't seen the rims of the big bins we were hanging clothes from since October. Even though we felt like we hadn't made a dent, the ladies there were so grateful for our help and expressed that we made a huge impact with our service throughout the day.
Another group of us helped out by sorting makeup. The experience was "very humbling because it's amazing to think about the fact that we have the privilege of buying makeup on our own, and it was cool to think about the fact that someone was going to come into the store and buy eyeliner or foundation and think 'Holy bananas I get to have this', when meanwhile we all have piles of product at home that we don't even always use".
At the very end of the day, we got to do some shopping in the thrift store, and even visit their higher end "vintage" store, which was super cool. Overall, the day was very humbling as we were able to make such an impact, even though we were just hanging clothes and organizing.
When we got back to Ruskin campus, we did a reflection that involved giving compliments to each other and passing around a ball of yarn to see all of the connections we made and how we were all intertwined by our service journey. The group of girls that is on the trip is the best possible group we could imagine, and we're so grateful for who we ended up with!