Community Closet provides Burlington residents with free professional attire

Burlington’s May Memorial Library was filled with racks of new or gently used clothes donated for community members to take for free during the Alamance Public Library’s Community Closet event. 

The event held Nov. 8 offered professional attire for community members in need of clothing for any professional need or transition. According to librarian and program coordinator Christina Rhone, this event serves as the closing for the library's annual Career Compass program, geared to help people transition into new jobs or prepare to enter the workforce. 

“Our mission really stems from helping our community be prepared as they prepare to endeavor in any kind of transition, be it a career transition, or transitioning from being in college and going off into their first job, or maybe they're just transitioning from one country to another,” Rhone said. 

The event offered clothing sizes extra small to 5XL, as well as shoes, ties and coats.

According to Rhone, the Community Closet event began at the Graham Public Library in May 2022 before being moved to May Memorial Library the following year. Rhone took over the event in March 2025. 

As the new coordinator for the program, Rhone said she hoped to bring community partners to Community Closet. She also planned to condense the timeframe of the Career Compass program from one workshop a month for several months to an intensive few weeks of workshops ending with Community Closet. 

This month’s event was the first where vendors were set up at the Community Closet to help community members.

Throughout the event, representatives from A Cleaner World dry cleaners taught attendees how to care for their new clothes. A local alterations shop took clothes for alterations. The Alamance County Community College employability coach provided advice on the job market and interviews. Also, a representative from the New Arrivals Institute provided people new to the country with resources. 

In addition to community partners, Elon University senior theatrical design and technology student Brooke Gustafson was asked to bring her research project “Fitting Futures” to the event. Gustafson said Fitting Futures is a research project she is working on through Elon College Fellows to connect with local communities and provide clothing alterations. 

At the event, Gustafson and other Elon students provided basic alterations such as hemming or sleeve shortening to the shoppers of the closet. 

“It's been a perfect match, and I've really, really enjoyed getting to be in the community in addition to what we've done prior, which is bring community members to campus,” Gustafson said. “It's been really sweet to have this opportunity to be in the community with people who live here, with the library in Burlington. It's been a very immersive and wonderful experience.” 

Rhone said Community Closet serves as the perfect way to fill the gaps in resources for the Burlington community. 

“​​In Burlington, we have a lot of organizations that support, and while sometimes those organizations do a great job of preparing folks who are coming in, or just preparing their regular community members for things that they need, they sometimes have gaps,” Rhone said. “And this is a way that we are able to fill that gap by having something like this that's free and open to the public so they can come and be able to get those resources.”

The Community Closet is held twice a year in November and May. Rhone said the library will begin accepting donations for the May Community Closet in April.