ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 A local nonprofit is helping families stretch their budgets while supporting its mission through a popular community fundraiser at the South Mall.<\/p>\n
For just five or ten dollars, shoppers can fill a bag with clothing and other items during the Caring Hearts Boutique\u2019s second annual fill-a-bag event, drawing hundreds of people looking for a deal and a way to give back.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually found out about this through my coworker. She sent me the flyer, and me and her are frequent thrifters, and it’s for a good cause,” said Jasmine Broderick, one of many participants.<\/p>\n
The event, held Thursday evening, is part of an ongoing effort by Caring Hearts, a nonprofit that also operates a free clothing closet in Allentown.<\/p>\n
Founder and CEO Denise Martinez said her work is driven by a passion for helping others and offering hope to those in need.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually have some homeless people shopping in here right now. They are here from a homeless encampment and I am helping them,\u201d Martinez said.<\/p>\n
In addition to serving the local community, some shoppers are using the event to support people abroad. Carmen Sterling said she plans to take four bags of clothing to Belize.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means the world to me, especially going to a country that needs it, that needs it more than America needs it. It means a lot to me to be going to Belize,\u201d Sterling said.<\/p>\n
The fundraiser continues Friday from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the South Mall.<\/p>\n
Organizers say donations are also welcome. Shoppers can stop by Caring Hearts Boutique Thursday through Sunday to drop off clothing items, with men\u2019s clothing currently in high demand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 A local nonprofit is helping families stretch their budgets while supporting its mission through a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[214,119,121,120,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-174480","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-_homepage_top_stories","9":"tag-allentown","10":"tag-allentown-headlines","11":"tag-allentown-news","12":"tag-allentown-area"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}