Summer is always a time of cleaning out and preparing for the new school year at Sycamore Park Elementary, but this year’s reorganization efforts took on a new meaning. It was a clean out with purpose and that purpose was to make room for more donations and goods to serve the community. Since 2020, the basement of Sycamore Park Elementary School has served as a free clothing closet for all of Culpeper County and originally provided laundry services to families in need. The public’s response has been positive since Loads of Love’s inception. A longtime customer recently said this during her bi-weekly visit, “I think this is a great place for the community because it will help a lot of families in need of stuff….it is a place where low income families can come and get shoes and clothes that their family really needs.”
Over the past three years, the focus of the facility has shifted from laundry to a free shop where local families in need can come to select donated clothing, shoes, and household items. The laundry services are now reserved for SPES families who are classified as homeless. A customer that had her first visit to Loads of Love in September had this to say, “I loved it. I found a few things for my kids and myself. It was really good.” It has remained busy since its opening and still serves families throughout Culpeper. So busy, in fact, that the staff at Sycamore Park Elementary School, including administrators Principal Derek Mc Williams and Assistant Principal Amy Cackowski, along with Behavior Interventionist Fallon Grimsley decided to expand the facility.
During the summer of 2023, additional square footage of the basement at Sycamore Park was cleared out and dedicated to the expansion of Loads of Love, almost doubling the size of the community resource. Mrs. Cackowski explains the project, “This summer and fall, our custodians and Ms. Fallon, worked incredibly hard to clean out the extra storage side so we could take in more donations! Thanks to their hard work and Ms. Fallon's continuous work each week, we are able to reach more families in our community!” Mr. McWilliams echoes these sentiments saying, “Our community is fortunate to have Ms. Fallon and her volunteers who take the time to open Loads of Love to help others. We are blessed to have such caring people at Sycamore Park.”
The expansion has been well received with an average of more than 50 families per week coming to select needed items. Recently, there were items added such as formalwear and Halloween costumes that are in short supply. Fallon Grimsley conveyed these thoughts about the new and improved Loads of Love, “The expansion is a dream come true. Being able to provide more free clothing and household items to families in our community is special. My hope is that we can continue to build strong relationships and give loads of love to others, because I think love can change everything!”
The new Loads of Love space is now fully operational and open to the public most days during the week and some weekend hours when volunteers are available. Customers are asked to sign in upon arrival and select up to 10 items to keep, then check out with our volunteers to ensure this resource is open for additional families to benefit from this service. Donations are accepted by appointment with Fallon Grimsley at fg5840@ccpsweb.org.
Follow Loads of Love on Facebook to see available hours of operation each week. https://www.facebook.com/groups/464217415695102/?ref=share&mibextid=Na33Lf
