A clean room is said to result in a clear mind. Eliza Liebowitz, a ninth-grader at Roslyn High School, found this clarity while cleaning her room: a desire to help others.
“I like to clean [my closet] out regularly and donate the clothes,” she said. “And I knew that Temple Sinai was doing a Ukraine drive. But I also knew about the [Village of East Hills’ Halloween] Spooktacular, which was coming up, and I thought that it’d be a good idea to do a children’s clothing drive for Ukraine there since a lot of families would be coming that day. A lot of people, like me, just have clothes lying around that they don’t need.”
Eliza is the founder of Clean your Closets for Children, also known as “Triple C.” The charity collects and donates children’s clothing, equipment and accessories. She is currently gathering party supplies to donate to homeless children so they can have birthday parties.
Triple C’s first clothing drive for the Ukrainian organization, Pomogaem, was held on Oct. 15. She and her mother, Donna Liebowitz, described the amount collected as “overwhelmingly large and generous.”
These items will be sent to Ukraine this month along with other items from groups such as Temple Sinai of Roslyn.
“It filled three SUVs completely and a pickup truck,” her mother said. “So there was a lot of stuff collected. Once she was done with that, [Eliza] said, ‘Well, that was nice, but what are we going to do next?'”
What came next for Eliza wasn’t another clothing drive — but one for party supplies. She came across some unopened party supplies while helping with cleaning her family’s basement. From there, what she had to do was clear.
“We saw a bunch of unused party supplies in our basement and it was the whole same thing again as with the clothing,” said Eliza. “I was wondering what to do with it all.”
Eliza is requesting donations of any unused birthday presents, paper goods, decorations or supplies.
Once collected, she will send them to Birthday Wishes Long Island, a Hicksville-based organization that provides birthday parties to homeless children and their families.
“I’ve never had to worry about where my clothes are going to come from or anything,” said Eliza. “But I know that a lot of people have to worry about that. That’s a constant battle. So I just want to be able to do my part and make sure that other people don’t have to worry about that and they can focus on more important things in life.”
If interested in donating, one can contact Eliza at elizaliebowitz@gmail.com or @cleanyourclosetsoutforchildren on Instagram.