Champions For Change

At the Curb for Suited for Change: Mary Ellen Callahan and Kathleen FitzGerald

9:30 a.m., Saturday, December 1, 2007. It's a cold, sunny day in downtown Washington, D.C.
A steady stream of cars pulls up to the curb outside 1010 Vermont Avenue to be met by two women bundled in cold weather jackets. For two-and-a-half hours, Kathleen FitzGerald and Mary Ellen Callahan will trade off greeting the cars' occupants as they help unload dresses, suits and overcoats onto a rolling clothes rack. Their ease with each other and with the donors comes from experience.

FitzGerald has been working clothing drives at Suited for Change for 13 years. Her friend and co-volunteer, Callahan, has been at it for nine-and-a-half years. Every three months, on the first Saturday of the month, they are on the sidewalk in front of Suited collecting clothes. (Suited collects professional clothing by appointment on the first Saturday of most months. Donors can also drop off clothing on Wednesdays by appointment.)

FitzGerald first heard about Suited from a news story. "I just liked the idea of it. It sounded very practical," she says. "I knew that coming out of college and starting to work, trying to find enough money to buy suits for work was tough and I thought, 'It's going to be even tougher for these women.' " Since she began volunteering for Suited, FitzGerald has also worked for several non-profits, attended graduate school at Georgetown and landed her current job at the Congressional Budget Office, where she works on low-income programs.

Callahan got involved with Suited when FitzGerald called her at the last minute to help with a clothing drive the day before Easter. "I knew she was the kind of person who when she says she will do something, she means it," says FitzGerald. The two women have been friends since their early 20's.

"I really like the organization. I really like the mission," says Callahan. "It has a tangible, practical result." A partner at Hogan and Hartson, a Washington, D.C. law firm, Callahan has scheduled a flight to Los Angeles to visit her boyfriend for the afternoon today so she can help with the clothing drive.

Both Callahan and FitzGerald like that their work for Suited bears no resemblance to their professional lives. "Mary Ellen and I spend a lot of time behind desks during the week," says FitzGerald. "So this is, quite frankly, a nice change."

11:45 a.m. Callahan looks at the clipboard listing names and appointment times for everyone scheduled to drop off clothing. Some seventy-five percent have already come and gone, a good turnout.

When FitzGerald and Callahan first started volunteering, clothing drives were free-for-alls. "People would come up and we couldn't handle the flow because it was non-stop," says FitzGerald.

Things are a lot more organized since Suited went to an appointment schedule, they say. The new system also gives Callahan and Fitzgerald more time to interact with the donors. They have learned to reject inappropriate clothing with finesse. "Oh, that's really nice," Callahan tells one donor, "but we're looking for outfits that women can wear for job interviews."

Many donors want to tell the story behind their clothes and most donations fit into one of a few categories, they say. Common themes are: suits from happy retirees, large-size clothes from women who've lost weight and donations from estates. This Saturday, donations have come from all these sources. FitzGerald and Callahan have also collected a raft of St. John knits from a Potomac resident; Escada, Ellen Tracy and Dana Buchman outfits; several nice size 16 suits from a woman heading to Florida for the winter and a blue tweed overcoat in a hard-to-come-by size 18.

FitzGerald and Callahan say they like volunteering for Suited because of the role it plays in the greater Washington community. "Suited has a very tangible role in the community because it's providing a service and it is providing not just the suits, but also the training and other development for women who are looking to change their lives," says Callahan. "It is inspirational to me."

"There are organizations that provide job training. There are government benefits to low-income people ... but Suited for Change fills a unique niche," says FitzGerald. "You need the clothes to get the job... And it's more than just having something to wear. It's helping build women's self esteem so that they can look like they're going to fit in when they walk in the door {for a job interview.}"

FitzGerald would like to see Suited with more funding for programs, but wouldn't like to see it "diversify too much. I think that it fills a unique niche and does it well, and I would like to see it keep doing what it does well," she says.

"Right now, it seems like Suited for Change is mature," says Callahan. "The only thing I would say is a little more space, a little more money to handle a larger volume of women ... but we don't want to go too far because we don't want to lose touch with the community."

12 noon. Time to close the drive. For the last time, Callahan and FitzGerald roll the now-full clothes rack into the building, onto the elevator and up to the Suited boutique, where other volunteers have been sorting clothes all morning. After a few greetings, it's time for Callahan to catch her flight and for FitzGerald to head to an afternoon party.

They'll be back on the street in three months.

Suited for Change thanks Kathleen Currie, a Washington, D.C. freelance writer for writing the profiles and Dara Walsh, a freelance Washington, D.C. photographer, for photographing some of the profilees.

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