MILWAUKEE — A Milwaukee woman is donating thousands of pounds of clothes to local charities through her Spare A Pair organization she runs out of her home.
"It’s just being human to me. Be kind," Lori Turner, the founder of Spare A Pair, said.
Turner orchestrates these clothing drives from the comfort of her Riverwest home. She reaches out to people through Facebook and she gets tons of responses. It's a humble way of doing things, but it's incredibly effective.
This year she was able to fill around 250 boxes of clothes which weighed a total of about 3,000 pounds. That includes 1,578 pairs of socks.
“I just feel it’s really important to pay it forward to the community because you might need that community some day," she said.
Turner began doing this in 2015, and it has grown every year. She also creates 'Blessings Bags' which have warm clothes, toiletries, and other essential items. There is even a poem inside each bag that Turner wrote herself. She drives around Milwaukee delivering the bags to the homeless.
"It gives me like a sense of purpose, but it's just something that I have to do. So I don’t come home and be like 'yay you did so good.' I just know I did the right thing."
She said it can be bitter sweet, though. She is happy to help those in need, but is sad that there are people who lack such common items.
"I'm on then hunt looking for people, and when I find them, I’m so happy that I found them so I can give them something. And then I come home I feel like I’m not happy that I found them."
She doesn't just do this during the holiday season. Turner does it all year round and has developed relationships with many of the people that she helps.
Turner recently made her big donation of clothes but is still filling up her 'Blessings Bags'. While she has lots of supplies, she can always use more since her work is year-round. To get in contact with her find her on Facebook by searching 'Lori Benson'. Yes the names are different, but it is the same person.
