Alhamdulillah, the "Share the Warmth" Clothing Project, which took place between December 2007 and February 2008, was very successful. It turned out to be the largest of all the projects Building Blocks has undertaken so far. More than 50 volunteers helped over the course of 8 weeks, each spending an average of 10 hours - that’s 500 man hours!

Some highlights:   

• Three huge bins were built from scratch for collecting clothes and placed at three convenient locations (Al-Amal School, Masjid Al Huda and Masjid Ar Rahmaan). JazakumAllah Khairan to these organizations for allowing us to use their facilities for collection.
• Clothes were collected for 5 weeks - an estimated 7,000 pieces of clothes in total, mashaAllah, of all kinds and sizes.
• Clothes were then distributed for 7 days. About 60% of these clothes went to about 150 Muslim families; each family took lots of clothes as they were free to choose whatever and however much they wanted.     
• About 30% of the clothes, which were left over after distribution, were donated to Mary Jo’s Sharing and Caring Hands organization.  They give out clothes for free to the needy. (10% of the total clothes collected could not be used due to their condition.)     
• If we put an average of $2 for each item, then 60% of these clothes would be worth $8,000. Even if we cut the figure down by $3,000, this project would still have benefited the Muslim community with $5,000 worth of clothes, alhamdulillah.

InshaAllah we hope to have another winter clothing drive this year.

Jazak Allah Khairan wa BarkaAllah Feekum for each and every brother and sister who donated their time for this project and to all those who donated clothes for the sake of Allah.  It was really worth it after seeing what it has achieved and Allah knows best. 

May Allah reward you all the best.