Since January 1, 2021, First Teen Clothes Closet (FTCC) has hosted 44 guests and given out more than 628 items (clothes, shoes, toiletries, hair care kits for black teens, and accessories. In January, we reopened by appointment only, and in mid-May, we returned to open shopping on Monday nights.

The First Lutheran Foundation Fund supports organizations in the larger community and also those that are part of First Lutheran Church’s own mission outreach. Included in the latter category is the First Teen Clothes Closet, which was established in 2012 as both a mission to serve youth in need in our community and as a volunteer opportunity for the youth in our congregation.

It has been a big year for the First Teen Clothes Closet! We have been in our new location at Trinity Lutheran Church for just over a year, and in that year we have served more than 275 individual teens from at least 24 area middle schools and high schools through our Monday night shopping hours, private appointments and the annual Trinity Lutheran Church block party and shoe distribution. (The shoe distribution alone set more than 170 teens up for the school year with a pair of new shoes).

The First Teen Clothes Closet is again partnering with the Children’s Clothes Closet at Trinity Lutheran Church to provide back-to-school shoes for children and teens during Trinity’s annual block party in August. For the last two years, we have provided approximately 130 pairs of new athletic shoes in adult sizes 7 through 13 to help ensure teens have the shoes they need for school (including PE classes). If you would like to support this effort, you can purchase NEW athletic shoes, men’s or women’s, in the sizes mentioned, or make a monetary donation to the effort.

The First Teen Clothes Closet has been overwhelmingly blessed in our new location. We’re getting more gently-used donations than ever, and distributing them to more than 2x as many teens as we previously served. But we are struggling to do so with the same volunteers as prior to our August relocation.

What an amazing congregation and community we have, serving as the hands of Christ in the world! Last month, we saw a wonderful example of generosity and giving in a time when so many are already being asked for so much.

First Teen Clothes Closet has a new home!

Thank you to the many volunteers who have helped in the relocation of the First Teen Clothes Closet to its new home, sharing a building with the Children’s Clothes Closet at Trinity Lutheran Church in La Crosse. We are excited about the opportunity to serve more teens in a location that is more accessible to the area of our community with the greatest concentration of need.

“For some families here, Onalaska might as well be on the other side of the state.” These were the words of one of the county social workers housed in Trinity Lutheran Church on the North Side and assigned specifically to serve residents of the area around La Crosse’s Northside Elementary.

The First Teen Clothes Closet is expanding its reach through a partnership with the Children’s Clothes Closet, housed at Trinity Lutheran Church in La Crosse. We have recognized for some time that there are many families who struggle to access our facility because they lack transportation to Onalaska. Recently connecting with organizers from the Children’s Clothes Closet has presented an opportunity for us to bring more teens to our Closet as an extension of our recent decision to offer to pay for taxi or transit rides.

Seasons are changing, and the First Teen Clothes Closet is preparing for spring. Prom season is around the corner, and we would love to have more dresses, jewelry and shoes to offer our guests. Other needed items include athletic shorts for guys and girls, and soon we will need girls’ swimsuits. 

A few numbers our congregation should feel good about:

• 215: Guests served at the First Teen Clothes Closet and through partnerships with other agencies
• 12: Communities from which guests came, including as far away at Coon Valley, Blair and Sparta
• 481: Pants, skirts and shorts distributed
• 444: Shirts, sweaters and hoodies handed out
• 60: Jackets and coats given to those in need
• 130: Pairs of shoes

Thanks to the generosity of our congregation and community, the First Teen Clothes Closet has full racks for nearly all items. There are a few specific needs for which we would still welcome donations now: coats, shoes, boots and items in hard-to-find XXL and larger sizes.

What is our most precious resource? The thing we all wish we had more of, to use, to share with our families and to give to others?

Surely, it is time. While we guard our time closely and feel we never have enough of it, it is when we give that time that we receive the most back. Volunteers who have given their time to serve as hosts for the First Teen Clothes Closet recently shared the moments of time when they were able to see and feel how this ministry is about so much more than clothes.

Our biggest requests this month for items at the First Teen Clothes Closet may seem at odds with each other: winter coats and athletic shorts. Here’s why both are needed…