When it was time to open the gates at Braemar’s Backyard Rink for the 2024 Edina Community Clothing Swap, a line of 140 attendees already snaked out to the parking lot. The May 9 swap, which allowed anyone to shop secondhand apparel donated to the city of Edina, was a popular spot for all ages and generations who wanted to subtract or add to their wardrobes without spending a dime.
By the time the last of the shoppers had filtered in the doors of the makeshift mall, rows of tables formerly lined with neatly folded T-shirts, sweatshirts, dresses and pants were well-mussed by the crowd. Thrifty attendees moved along the tables, holding up items, checking care tags and stashing their favorites in shopping bags. It was hard to mind the mess too much; for some shoppers, it made the hunt for a diamond in the rough more exciting.
There was more to score at the swap than ever before, said Edina’s organics recycling coordinator and swap organizer Twila Singh. Singh said the amount of apparel donated this year handily tripled last year’s donations at 3,976 lbs.
Last year’s swap also had no one waiting in line before doors opened, Singh said. Whether it was the sunny weather or improved marketing of the event, shoppers certainly made a stronger showing this year.
Two swappers were Claire and Eleanor Sand of Minneapolis. The mother and daughter had seen a sign advertising the swap the day before and decided to try their luck at the tables. They came away with a decent haul: Claire found a few options for an upcoming “1980s Prom” themed party, Eleanor collected a bagful of on-trend white dress shirts. Claire Sands said she looked forward to giving the dated prom dresses another night out on the town before recycling them back to another thrift store or swap event.
Singh said whatever apparel was leftover when the swap ended was donated to Disabled American Veterans. This year, that was 233 lbs of apparel.
After the leftover donations were weighed, the swap organizers could surmise exactly how much clothing was swapped.
“We weigh every pound that comes in and we weigh every pound that goes to DAV, so we know exactly how much got swapped,” Singh said.
The data measures the growth of the event and the health of the “swap.” This year, 94% was swapped by 647 visitors. Last year, 80% of donated items were swapped at the event.
Singh said other donation partners were lined up to take some goods that couldn’t be taken by DAV.
Singh gave a special nod to her “small army” of 38 volunteers, who contributed well over 100 hours to run the event.
“It was a crazy amount of stuff that came in, so they [the volunteers] deserve a lot of credit,” Singh said.
Some volunteers had specialty roles. Volunteer Nicole Meehan gave away county compost bins and bags with her son, Charlie. Meehan is a “community builder” for Buy Nothing, which has seven groups in Edina.
Watching the swap grow each year, Meehan was particularly excited to see more bulk at the boys tables.
“Finding clothes for two boys is always a bit of a challenge,” she said.
Other organizations that made a showing at the swap were Good To Go Cups, coolplanetmn.org , Reuse Minnesota, Minneapolis Toy Library and the Pinky Swear Foundation, which is collecting sneakers and cleats for donation overseas.
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