LAKE HAVASU CITY, Ariz. – Clothes Closet’s continuous outreach for Lake Havasu’s working class is growing. The nonprofit is making strides towards securing additional funding that will provide the needed help. Five years ago, the clothing charity opened its doors on Mesquite Ave with the mission to give out free clothes to individuals without homes. The organization has many ongoing events throughout the year such as the biannual care fair that showcases resources for medical and nutritional needs, as well as job listings. Their annual back to school fair assists students in need of school supplies and of course clothing. Two years ago, showers were added in their community service lineup.
Recently, Clothes Closet founder Christine Watson Buntemeyer began to notice a new abundance of people in need of health, childcare, and therapy. However, the requests have not been from people on the streets, but from the town’s working class.
“We’ve gone from 220 (working class) a month to over 700 a month just within the past three years,” she said. With the amount of walk-ins in need, the nonprofit had to hire a waged social worker to help with the load.
“I have to have paid employees. Clothes Closet has been running on contributions for years now that we have payroll. It’s a whole new animal. You can’t have volunteers doing that kind of work, you have to have people that are educated. They come to us then we have to fight for them to get their insurance. Sometimes they are not mentally capable of doing this so we have to help them,” Butemeyer added.
The founder emphasized that the community is facing a hidden crisis. More people walk through their doors every day in desperate need of support. The struggles occur out of sight. From there, the nonprofit advocates fiercely to secure additional resources. As hardworking families are trapped in an impossible squeeze of rent and utility costs skyrocketing, along with the risk of losing their medical assistance just because of their income. The local working class still face not being able to make ends meet.
“They don’t see the struggling families working two jobs as rent goes up, electricity keeps going up and they’re ready to lose their medical cause they make too much money, but then they don’t make enough money. Or the mom that can’t go back to work because it costs too much for child care so they are in the catch-22. People aren’t seeing this unless they’re in the population. They come to see us because they don’t know where to go,” Buntemeyer said.
This weekend is an opportunity to offer a glimmer of optimism for the nonprofit’s dedicated passion to give more hand ups. Just this past summer, Buntemeyer shared that symphonic nonprofit Big Band approached Clothes Closet to donate their time by participating in one of their upcoming fundraisers. This is when Buntemeyer came up with the idea to create A Night of Hope and Harmony. This will be a night of magic and banding together complete with dinner, dancing, and music provided by Big Band. This fundraiser will be taking place on Saturday, Nov. 14 from 4 to 8 p.m. at Shugrues at 1425 McCulloch Blvd N. Tickets are $125 per person and all proceeds of the event will go to Clothes Closet who invites the community out to wine, dine, and make an impact.
