COMMUNITY

Halloween costume swap Saturday promotes sharing, reducing waste

Halloween is just around the corner and it’s time to find the perfect costume to bring the night to life. Whether you’re looking to elicit smiles or screams this year, costumes can be costly. So this weekend, a local nonprofit is hosting an event to help people find their new spooky persona for free. 

Salem’s Halloween Costume Swap is happening this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at South Salem High School, 1910 Church St. S.E. It’s organized by the Salem Cloth Project, which works year-round to provide cloth diaper kits to local families and reduce waste. 

According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s latest data, landfills received 11.3 million tons of textiles in 2018, and 3.3 million tons in clothes and shoes alone. Because of this, the Salem Cloth Project wanted to provide a place where people could reuse costumes and reduce waste. 

“One of the underlying messages with the Salem Cloth Project is that we all can have enough if we share,” said founder Kaileigh Westermann-Lewis. “The costume swap is a part of that – as a community, we all have shared resources that we can lend to each other.”

People don’t have to bring a costume if they don’t have one to “swap,” she said. They’re still welcome to come and find one they like, because the event already has more than 100 costumes that have been donated. 

The organization collaborated with the cities of Salem and Keizer to set up donation sites in locations such as the public library, which have brought in a ton of costumes for all ages, and even pets. 

“This is part of our mission but the city of Keizer and the city of Salem are also responsible for doing a lot of environmental messaging and one of their key tasks is to talk about the impact that clothing has on the environment,” Westermann-Lewis said.

The event will include a lot of messaging and help about how to extend the life of clothing and make sure it lasts. There will even be someone at the event to mend the costumes if they have slight tears, show people how to mend their own clothes, and pass out personal hand mending kits. 

People can still bring costumes to swap at the event this weekend. There will also be fun for the whole family, with donuts for sale on site and free face painting. 

“It’s really just going to be a fun event with lots more than just the costumes,” Westermann-Lewis said. Those who want to learn more about the Salem Cloth Project can visit its website at salemclothproject.org.

Contact reporter Jordyn Brown at [email protected].

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Jordyn Brown is an Oregon journalist who formerly worked for the Eugene Register-Guard.