Donate Old Dance Costumes to Kids in Your Community

A great use for old dance costumes is to make a Dress-Up Box for local community organizations and programs. This is a wonderful way for dancers to volunteer in their communities, find homes for old costumes, and work together as a group on a fun charity project.

The first thing your group or studio will need to do is to find places that might want donated Dress-Up Boxes. Preschools and Day Care centers are often interested in this sort of thing, as are other facilities that cater to young children such as Women's Shelters, Family Centers with Playgroups and even Apartment Building Community Rooms. You may also want to contact your local Social Service organization to find out if they know of any programs that may be interested. Programs such as WIC often have waiting areas with lots of children that might appreciate a fun new box of "toys". Hospitals and nursing homes are also good places to consider donating a dress-up box to.

Once you have locations that will accept the boxes you will need to solicit donations. This can be done with a simple flier at local dance studios and on community bulletin boards. Some local businesses and stores may allow you to post fliers. You can also submit the request for donations to the newspaper, local cable channel and school newsletters. Make sure you request clean, use-able items and post specific hours, dates and locations for drop-offs.

Next you will want to find containers to use to hold the costumes. Large plastic tubs work well but you may also want to use oversize cardboard boxes or even second-hand trunks or lockers. A great activity for kids involved in the project is to decorate the boxes with paint, stickers, glitter, etc. Labeling the box "Dress-Up" is a good ideas too.

Once the boxes are ready to be filled and you have solicited enough donations, you'll want to sort through and organize the items. Try to tailor the items going into the boxes for the group you are donating to. For instance, if the box will be going to a very young group of kids make sure there are no small pieces or overly suggestive costuming. Try to balance the items in the boxes so not all the hats go into one box. Items to put in the boxes can include hats, gloves, scarves, belts, pull on skirts, tutus and even shoes.

Finally, make sure to capture your project with photos, video or a written article. This can be used for a newspaper press release, content for your website, or just to remember the fun you had helping out in your community.