God's Closet channels extra clothing to needy

FALLBROOK — This month, God’s Closet is celebrating the receipt of some 7,500 bags of “overflow” clothing from the Angel Shop, St. John’s Thrift Shop and the Fallbrook Senior Center.

Often, the thrift shops receive more donations of clothing than they can accommodate in their stores. God’s Closet was formed to channel this “overflow” clothing to people in need. The organization originated in November of 2006 as the result of a joint commitment between the Angel Shop and Fallbrook Presbyterian Church.

“Each week we picked up anywhere from 65 to 100 bags of clothing from them,” said Jan Mangus.

Magus said the original pickup crew consisted of Sherry McFarland driving the Presbyterian Church van, Jean and Billy Lockett with their truck and Sky Littlefield with her van. The church provided a room for the group to use for the purpose of sorting and distributing the clothing.

According to Magus, sorters included her mother Elynor and sister Renee, Littlefield and Liz Glover, with Billy Lockett “schlepping the bags.”

The goal for God’s Closet was to collect, sort and distribute the clothing, not to store it. It wasn’t long before St. John’s Thrift Shop and the Senior Center offered their extra clothing to the effort as well.

Mangus said at an average of 100 bags a week, it led to the burnout of the majority of the helpers, remembering that “these lovely ladies ranged in age from 60 to 92.”

“I found myself in the middle of the gymnasium with hundreds of bags and only myself to sort them; that’s when yet another miracle was about to happen,” Mangus said. “In a conversation at work <at Fallbrook Hospital> I told a few friends about my dilemma and the fact that God keeps sending clothing but not the helpers and without help I was going to pull the plug. As I was having my pity party on the floor of the gym, a woman came in inquiring what was going on.”

Soon, the woman, Pat Reilly, was sorting clothing alongside Mangus. “With that, my spirits lifted a bit,” Mangus said. “We still had over 300 bags to sort and I had help!”

“All of a sudden there was a lot of noise and I could only see the outline of people due to the sun coming in around them – lots of people, I mean lots and lots of people!”

Mangus’ friends from work, Pam Ullman and Monica Mejia, showed up with their families. “We had at least 20 people now, praise the Lord!” Mangus said.

During the Rice Fire, the Fallbrook Presbyterian Church opened its library to allow the God’s Closet volunteers to disperse clothing to victims of the fire. (That was a temporary situation only – not a regular drop-off, pick-up area.)

“We know that we helped over 50 families during and after the fire,” Mangus said.

God’s Closet proudly reports that with the added help of Les Seymour and Jim Saunders, its volunteers have picked up, sorted and dispersed a total of 7,500 bags of clothing to the needy within the past 18 months.

Organizations that clothing is disbursed to include: Alpha Project (Vista and San Diego), Bread of Life Homeless Shelter (Oceanside), Center for Community Solutions (Escondido, Hidden Valley Shelter), organizations in Mexico (Dr. Rosado delivers), Fallbrook Hospital (Woman’s Center and Emergency Room), Fallbrook Healthcare Foundation, Father Benno’s (Oceanside), Hines Horticulture (Rainbow), Military Outreach (Camp Pendleton), Newlife Church of Orange, Presbyterian Crisis Center (San Diego), Serenity House, Stand Up For Kids (Oceanside) and The San Diego Rescue Mission.