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Finding The Right Fit At Jacob's Closet

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By JOSE PATINO GIRONA

jpatino@tampatrib.com

Published: December 17, 2008

TAMPA HEIGHTS - Doris Williams longed to serve. For years she has attended Highland Avenue Church of Christ, but work kept her from giving back.

About six years ago she began running the church's newly formed Jacob's Closet, a charity that gives free clothing to people in need.

The store is in a portable building across the street from the church, 2800 N. Highland Ave. It is open from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesdays. But Williams, 69, also spends time in the store on Mondays and Tuesdays, collecting and organizing donated clothes.

Customers may shop once a month at the store and select a limited amount of clothing. Williams keeps a record of her visitors by asking them to add their names to a dated notepad if they select clothes. She averages about 29 people each week, she said.

Recently she discussed Jacob's Closet and her work there:

Q. What is Jacob's Closet?

A. We give clothes to the needy. The majority of the people who come in here are homeless.

Q. What has it been like over the years managing the shop?

A. I didn't have rules (at the beginning). They would come out of here with garbage bags of clothes. I have been doing it for so long that I can look at a person and can tell if they actually really need something.

Q. When did you start?

A. I don't remember when I started. I was the first one to ever do it. Over a good five years, I know. When we started, it was in the church. It was in the second floor. I was afraid of someone going up the stairs and falling.

Q. What merchandise do you have?

A. I have children's clothes, women's clothes, men's clothes and boys' and girls' clothes. I don't have enough clothes for the men who come here. Men don't volunteer and give up clothes like women. Men don't buy clothes like women, so they don't have the clothes to give. I get a lot of women, but I just don't have enough clothing for men.

Q. How do you know if a customer has been to your shop more than once in the same month?

A. I can look at their faces and remember them. I can ask their name and look at my list.

Q. Why do this?

A. When I was working (as an accounting clerk for the Army and Air Force Exchange at MacDill Air Force Base), I couldn't do much for the church. This was a ministry nobody wanted to volunteer to be committed. I like working with people. I like to talk to people. What I try to do is get them to come to church and maybe it will help to turn their lives around.

Q. What have you learned?

A. There are good people in all walks of life.

Reporter Jose Patino Girona can be reached at (813) 259-7659.

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