{"id":1740,"date":"2025-08-04T18:51:37","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T18:51:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/?p=1740"},"modified":"2026-04-07T13:21:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T13:21:47","slug":"piecing-together-community-through-creative-reuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/piecing-together-community-through-creative-reuse\/","title":{"rendered":"Piecing Together Community Through Creative Reuse"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"HeadshotCan a retail store operate solely on donations from the community? The answer is yes, and ReCraft is doing it! I remember visiting ReCraft last summer as a volunteer and was amazed by the amount and variety of materials in the store. I vividly remember helping organize fabric and enjoying the welcoming environment of the store. I was curious to learn more about how ReCraft operates, and this fellowship allowed me to explore just that.<\/p>\n

My name is Jackie Alvarado, and I am a rising junior from Godwin, North Carolina. I am a Sustainability Science Major with minors in Visual Strategy and Data Analytics. This summer I am the Sustainable Experiences Fellow at ReCraft Creative Reuse Center. It has been a wonderful experience working at ReCraft, as I value and support their mission of creativity and sustainability.<\/p>\n

At ReCraft, I assist in the Makerspace, which is where families can craft using materials that are 100% donated! I manage the space, give instructions, and answer questions. I enjoy being in this space because I love seeing others being creative and having fun. Beyond this, I also shadow departments within the nonpro\ufb01t. Some days, I spend time with donations to understand the processes, other days with volunteers, and then operations, where I learn more about the store\u2019s \u201cbackstage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Student

Sorting jewelry donations<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Student

Learning to sew at our staff workshop day.<\/p><\/div>\n

Currently, I am working on my project, which is aligned with my minor in data analytics. I am analyzing volunteer data from 2022 to 2025 to explore the question: How can we develop and retain long-term volunteers? <\/em>Apart from this project, I am also practicing design thinking skills to develop solutions for ReCraft\u2019s excess scrap fabric. Right now, I am working on creating a Blue Ridge Mountain themed wall made of fabric scraps and researching textile recycling options for ReCraft.<\/p>\n

I am learning so much through this fellowship, from technical skills like data analysis to organizational knowledge about nonpro\ufb01t management, and creative problem-solving through design thinking. Learning the ins and outs of a creative reuse center has inspired me to one day create my own business centered on reuse and creativity. I also learned how to sew at a staff workshop and recently picked up scrap journaling as a new hobby! I have enjoyed being part of ReCraft\u2019s dedicated community and seeing the real-world impact of circular economy practices through donations, reuse, and volunteers.<\/p>\n

If you are looking for a place to buy craft supplies, shop sustainably, or start a new creative hobby, visit ReCraft! If you are looking for somewhere to volunteer and give back, also visit Recraft! For more information about Recraft, go to https:\/\/<\/u>www.recraftgvl.org\/<\/u> <\/a>and follow them on Instagram @recraftgvl.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can a retail store operate solely on donations from the community? The answer is yes, and ReCraft is doing it! I remember visiting ReCraft last summer as a volunteer and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1746,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1740"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1743,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1740\/revisions\/1743"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}