Staff Writer
Dolores Hamrick and Tami Phillips are into their seventh year with MiMoz Clothez, a nonprofit organization which provides clothing to Wayne-Westland Community Schools students.
The Wayne residents provide the clothing for children and teens for free "and then shoes if we have them," said Hamrick. "We don't get a lot of good shoes."
She quotes longtime children's television advocate/personality Fred Rogers: "Any person who helps a child is a hero."
The women began to mend, clean and sort clothes in their basements about seven years ago and then Vic Barra of the Wayne Ford Civic League offered a room for MiMoz Clothez as well as financial support.
"It's a wonderful organization. They do a great job," supporter Margaret Harlow, a Westland Rotarian, said of MiMoz and its use of the Wayne Ford Civic League building located on the west side of Wayne Road south of Ford Road in Westland.
A donation box is now there. Hamrick and Phillips recently came to a Westland Rotary lunch, also thanking Rotarians for financial help.
The Rotary donation provided more than 200 shirts and 100 pairs of pants.
Hamrick and Phillips get referrals from the Family Resource Center of the Wayne-Westland district, school social workers, and agencies such as First Step and Samaritas.
"The room has been such a blessing," Hamrick noted of the Wayne Ford Civic League. Clothing sizes range from 1T (toddler) through adult.
Phillips explained laundering clothes is necessary and costly. Money donations are their preference as they can shop sales.
Phillips said the bin for clothes, "is full every time." She calls their nonprofit "frugal". It served 125 families last year, added Phillips.
She said she is pleased some laundering costs are dropping, saying "Somebody's praying."
