(left) Dallas Bonavita, executive director of Note in the Pocket, talks to the lower school student council at Ravenscroft School. (right) Students prepare signs to encourage their classmates to donate to a clothing drive for Note in the Pocket, an organization that provides clothing and a special note to impoverished and homeless children in Wake County.
Out of necessity, the teacher and her mom put a note in each coat pocket that read: “This coat is your child’s to keep. It’s a gift from the community.” The mother-daughter pair, who, Bonavita explains, prefer not to have their names in the spotlight, sent the coats home again. That coat drive was the first project for what would become an organization named Note in the Pocket. For years the coat drives continued. Word got around and, pretty soon, people were just bringing coats at all times of the year, and in great numbers. People started to bring clothes, too. Organizers and friends would drop the clothes off at schools’ clothing closets for those in need and social workers would handle distribution. “It just kinda grew … people would bring whatever they had whenever they had it,” Bonavita says. While growth was welcomed, it was also time for a more organized effort. That meant community calendars and monthly clothing drives. A steady stream of clothes coming in could mean a steady stream of clothes going out. The first clothing drive in 2012 yielded more than 100 bags of clothes from an Our Lady of Lourdes Vacation Bible School group. “At that point all bets were off,” Bonavita laughs. “People were just
– immediately – wanting to schedule clothing drives. Exponentially, as people would hear about us, we had more volunteers show up. We had more requests for clothes.” They grew their partnership base with school social workers and homeless and transitional housing agencies. Through the partnerships, they could identify the children most in need of their services. Note in the Pocket had found its niche providing clothing to school-age children. They were delivering a week’s worth of clothing to each child in need. In the care package were shoes, socks, underwear and seasonallyappropriate, well-fitting clothes. There was no one, they discovered, who was doing what they were doing. “We deliver … the families in financial crisis can’t get to where there are free or reduced-priced clothes,” Bonavita says. “And those places don’t have a week’s worth of clothes in that child’s sizes. Forget it if you have several children and … you might need size 14 husky. What thrift shop is going to have five pair of size 14 husky pants? You’d be lucky to find one.” To get the clothing they’re looking for, Note in the Pocket volunteers have been known to visit several thrift shops and discount stores. “They’re great,” she says of the shops. “We
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