New to campus, the International Justice Mission plans to spread their message and support the community through a pop-up thrift fundraiser, Threads, on Nov. 13 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Borchuck Plaza.
Gracee Dejarnette, president of IJM, and Sydney Neal, vice president of finance and administration, shared the details of the organization and event.
“The International Justice Mission is a global organization that works to fight against human trafficking and modern-day slavery,” said Dejarnette. “As a campus chapter, we help support them in three ways: through fundraising, prayer and advocacy.”
Threads is an annual thrift and consignment event for chapters of IJM. Students are encouraged to “pay what you can” and all proceeds will be donated to IJM. Clothes have been donated by students and community members. “Clothes are coming in from everywhere,” said Neal. “We’ve had sorting parties where we’ve had our whole club or as many of our friends as we can get to help us.
Dejarnette and Neal hope this year will set the groundwork for Threads to be a significant event on campus. “Our hope is to kind of establish it and then really get the word out on campus,” said Dejarnette. “We’d love to see a bunch of different types of people, a bunch of different clubs show up.”
The IJM chapter started so students could have a way to make a difference in human trafficking. “Our campus is very service oriented, and there’s a lot of really awesome people who want to make a difference,” said Dejarnette.
The next event for IJM is a prayer gathering for those affected by human trafficking on Nov. 20. A networking event for next semester is currently in the works with representatives from human trafficking organizations.
“Everyone on campus wants to leave the world a little better than we found it and IJM gives us a way to do that,” said Dejarnette.
