Wanna buy some cool clothes for a good cause? Check out the “Thrift in The Woods” event happening from Feb. 14 to Feb. 20 on the second floor of the College-in-the-Woods Dining Hall.

From 12 p.m. to 4 p.m., a pop-up store will be available to thrift for men’s and women’s’ clothing ranging from size XXS to 4XL. Accepting only cash, the store is pricing most of their items between $1 and $5.

All of the profits will be donated to the Clean Clothes Campaign, which is dedicated to helping laborers in the garment industry in Asia and Eastern Europe receive wages they should be getting. The Clean Clothes Campaign was founded in 1989 in the Netherlands but has since expanded to operating in more than 45 countries. Currently, the campaign has a network of four coalitions: The European, South Asian, Southeast Asian and East Asian Coalitions. Their focus is on the worker and figuring out the local issues to apply them on a global scale. Some of their actions include offering direct support to workers fighting against the violations of their rights, lobbying companies and governments and collaborating with workers to develop global campaigns intending to pay living wages to employees.

The underpaid garment workers deal with many unnecessary difficulties that propelled this event into action, such as unsafe work environments, gender discrimination and bad contracts that may force overtime. Not only is there gender discrimination but also gender violence. Female workers are subject to physical, emotional and verbal abused during their labor shifts. Furthermore, the garment industry in general is a major carbon pollutant on Earth. So many of the garments made end up becoming waste in landfills, and there is the additional issue of toxic chemicals in the work environment. The manufacturing and designing of high volumes of clothing very quickly, otherwise known as fast fashion, is a proponent of these problems.

All of these issues are what pushed Bian Suzuki-Wolf, a sophomore double-majoring in computer science and mathematics, to organize and plan this event for the Clean Clothes Campaign. Suzuki-Wolf has put everything into this project as the vice president for multicultural affairs for the College-in-the-Woods Council. She found the campaign during online research and realized it was the perfect fit for the message she was trying to address.

“If garment workers are paid more, there will be less fast fashion and less pollution coming from clothes,” Suzuki-Wolf said.

Suzuki-Wolf always thrifts instead of buying new clothes in support of this cause. She believes local thrift stores and antique shops are the best way to shop for affordable clothes and avoid businesses with unethical practices. In general, thrifting is a popular pastime for college students, with stores like Thrifty Shopper in Binghamton that carry large amounts of used clothes. Furthermore, she spoke about what she hopes other Binghamton University students will take away from the event.

“I think it’s something that everyone should partake in,” Suzuki-Wolf said. “I hope some people come by and realize, ‘These are cool clothes and they’re very cheap, why not do this instead of buying new ones and [polluting] the environment?’”

“Thrift in the Woods” will have a variety of shirts, pants, coats, skirts, shoes, tote bags and much more. Be sure to check it out for a worthwhile cause that can benefit both the consumer and the worker, conveniently right on campus.