A Miner Miracle for Marcellus

Meet Marcellus. He is an intelligent, personable and rather funny young man, and he’s looking for a job. Marcellus called us at 9:30 in the morning because he had a job interview at Loew’s at 12:30 and desperately needed a new suit. He had tried everywhere he could think of with no success. Finally he googled ‘free clothing’ and found us. We told him to get over here as fast as he could. Luckily, he was already on the way.

Last month, the Free Clothing Program partnered with A Miner Miracle, so we are now able to offer our male guests brand new job interview clothing. For those of you who are not familiar with A Miner Miracle, it is a San Francisco based non-profit that has been providing professional clothing and image counseling to low-income men, women and young adults seeking employment since 1995. It is the creation of Kathy Miner and has been responsible for assisting more than 13,000 individuals in their quest to re-enter the workforce. Unfortunately, the men’s program was forced to close its doors last year. The work Ms. Miner and A Miner Miracle had done is integral to the stability of the men and women they served, which included many of the residents of St. Anthony’s drug and alcohol recovery program, Father Alfred Center. So we here at the Free Clothing Program are very proud to carry on Kathy Miner’s legacy.

When I met Marcellus for the first time this morning, he was wearing a sport coat, jeans and sneakers, and I’m guessing he had spent the morning and the night before wondering how he would explain such a thing to a perspective employer. When I took him to see the clothes, he looked at me and said, with a smile on his face, “I had a feeling about this morning.”

It took about a half an hour to find him the perfect jacket. Then a brand new pair of shoes, new pants, new shirts and a black tie. The only sticking point was the belt. We literally only had one men’s belt in stock and it was a size too small. A Miner Miracle is provided a limited supply of new clothing by some very generous corporate donors; however, there are still some things, like belts and dress socks, which we rely solely on individual donations to provide. So Marcellus had to make the best with the belt we had.

Belt issues aside, Marcellus looked like a different man by the time he emerged in his new clothes. Bubbling with enthusiasm, that same big smile on his face, he left the Free Clothing Program with ‘Good lucks’ and handshakes from the entire staff. I made him promise to let us know what happened later and told him that once he got the job, he should come back for some career clothing. With a profuse amount of thank yous, Marcellus walked away, confident and capable and happy.

Thank you to Kathy Miner and A Miner Miracle for making this possible. And thank you to whoever donated a size 38 reversible black and brown leather belt. It certainly went to good use. Please keep them coming!