Take your used clothing and fabric to Shorewood Saturday for the orchestra fundraiser

Turn out those closets! This is the best opportunity you will have to donate items instead of putting them in the landfill.

Shorewood Orchestra is holding a clothing and household textile drive to raise money to send the school orchestra to Carnegie Hall - an opportunity that only comes once every four years.

Working with a company called Clothes for the Cause, the orchestra will be paid a sliding scale for each pound of clothing and household textiles collected. The more that is collected, the more Orchestra will be paid per pound.

Bring your donations to Orchestra's collection event on Saturday, November 1 from 10am to Noon at the Shorewood High School parking lot.

What's great about this collection drive is that the clothing and textiles do NOT need to be in usable condition. This company will sort through and separate what can be reused and what will be broken down and recycled. Either way, Orchestra gets paid.

Items can be torn, tattered, stained, holey, smelly, stretched out and ready for the garbage can. All those items too grungy for Goodwill can be turned into cash for Shorewood Orchestra! All you have to do is pack your donations into plastic garbage bags so that they stay dry. You don't have to separate usable from unusable items -- the company does all that for you.

Here's what you can donate:

• Clothing of any kind/condition
• Gloves and hats
• Shoes of any kind/condition, paired or single (cloth, leather, plastic, rubber)
• Towels: bath, kitchen, rags in any condition
• Linens: sheets, blankets, quilts, table cloths, placemats in any condition
• Curtains, draperies, cloth shower curtains
• Throw rugs (not carpet)
• Throw pillows (not bed pillows)
• Bags and purses (synthetic/leather), gym bags, backpacks
• Stuffed animals

Here's what you cannot donate: 

• glass, breakables, electronics, pet beds, bed pillows, carpet, uniforms, mattresses, hotel linens, items previously for sale at a thrift store (unless you purchased and used for personal use prior to donating).

Questions can be directed to Rene