It's inspiring to have a mission, and better yet, to achieve it. That is what the Westlake, Ohio office of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services did on Friday, February 23, during their clothing drive.
Howard Hanna Real Estate Services is no stranger to clothing drives. They conduct annual drives for charity, and this year they assigned themselves one job—fill the Planet Aid truck. The organization spread the word throughout the company and via social media to publicize the date and time when the Planet Aid truck would be on the premises.
The company collected clothes in advance, keeping the donations in their office space, and on February 23 between 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., the truck was successfully filled. The real estate office collected 1,400 pounds of used clothing, shoes, and other textiles. That’s an average of 40 pounds of textiles per person and 2 to 3 bags for every agent in the office.
Planet Aid’s Ohio team celebrated Howard Hanna’s employees with lunch as a small token of appreciation. It's not an overstatement to say that partnering with businesses like Howard Hanna has been a major part of Planet Aid's success for over 25 years. Our partners help us to keep reusable clothing out of landfills while supporting our efforts to fund local and global development projects ranging from education, agriculture, health and nutrition in the U.S, India, parts of South America, and Sub-Saharan Africa.
These partnership also further the circular economy. When the donated clothes are resold, it provides a myriad of domestic and international jobs, from sorting and selling reused fashion at thrift stores to providing much-needed entrepreneurship and financial independence opportunities, especially for women, who resell the reused clothing in their local marketplaces.
Our local Planet Aid offices work with the local business community to assist bin hosts, companies, and organizations conducting clothing drives. Earlier in the month, Planet Aid's Ohio Operations Manager, Rich Armstrong, and Territory Manager, Randy Smith, made a presentation at Howard Hanna's Westlake office to inform the staff and management about Planet Aid and its mission.
After attending the "Fill the Truck" clothing drive Armstrong stated, “It was a great event! People were very friendly and very happy to help our mission. The best part is we are planning to partner with Howard Hanna’s Westlake office for future clothing drives.”