Local NAPW Businesswomen Donate Dozens of Suits to Local Charity

Nearly a dozen members of the Monmouth County Chapter of the National Association of Professional Women (NAPW) rummaged through their closets last weekend, and gathered more than 100 articles of clothing for local women in need.

Members of the national women's professional organization brought the gently-used business attire (and select household goods and children's clothing) to a local thrift store helping out women reentering the job market.

Second Chances is a boutique in Neptune City that specializes in selling quality new and used goods ranging from clothes to furniture, books, and accessories. All proceeds are women's coats donated to Redeem-Her, a non-profit organization based in Pt. Pleasant Beach, to help provide basic amenities such as food, water, and shelter to local women and families. The beneficiaries of Redeem-Her are predominantly recent NJ Correctional Department parolees looking to re-assimilate into the local workforce.

Second Chances thrift store was the brainchild of students in the Entrepreneurship Program at Monmouth University. The students handle every aspect from site location to research and development, finances and accounting, and marketing.

"We wanted to do something local for our community, and we all were talking during a recent meeting about needing to do 'Spring cleaning' around the house. We decided to combine these two projects and make it into a community service project for our chapter. We asked our members to take a look at their closets, and bring bags of clothing to the next meeting," says Chapter President Kat Cavallo. "Little did we know our members would come back with bags and bags of incredible, fashionable outfits!"

We would also like to recognize those members who did contribute to this exciting endeavor and they are: Kathleen "Kat" Cavallo of Med Edge, Lisa Waters of Giordano, Halleran & Ciesla, P.c., Alicia Hynes of GMAC, Judy Kushner of Everything but Flowers, Dr. Yvonne Johnson of Nikken, Lois Gilbert of Word Smith, and Alix Hayes who was kind enough to bring this great idea and press release to fruition. Thank you ladies one and all! The Monmouth Chapter of NAPW hopes to do another clothing drive amongst its membership in the near future!

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