Clothing drive helps OSU students dress for success

By KYLE ODEGARD

Gazette-Times reporter

Oregon State University instructor Wanda Crannell carried an armful of sports coats and blouses into the basement of the Agriculture and Life Sciences Building and placed them in cold storage, next to 200 other items of dress clothing.

"We're about 20 percent there," Crannell said. She's hoping hundreds more "gently-used" shirts, skirts and ties will be donated by early February.

Contributions are off to a slower start this year for the annual Career Makeover Wardrobe Event, which is scheduled for Feb. 13 in the Memorial Union Ballroom at OSU. For the third year, students who attend can buy business attire on the cheap to wear to job fairs scheduled for the week after the wardrobe event.

The students can snap up bargains on clothes they may not have needed before, but that could make the difference in snaring a job in the near future. Suits sell for $15, separates for $5 each.

"You can't find anything like that anywhere else. A decent suit is expensive and hard to find," said Caryn Ong, 26, who volunteered at the sale, and who bought a suit at last year's wardrobe event.

"When you are a student, you don't have too much money to spare," she said. After graduating last spring, Ong is working as an OSU researcher.

Items can be dropped off until Feb. 5 at OSU Career Services in the basement of the Kerr Administration Building, or at the OSU Bookstore Beaver Fan Shop in downtown Portland.

"There are so many alumni up in Portland. They are really big supporters. Without those Portland donations … " Crannell said, her voice trailing off.

Campbell's Cleaners in Corvallis is donating its services to dry clean donated items.

"As an OSU alum, I like to support OSU's efforts in teaching and providing professional dress at a low cost to its students," said Tammy Campbell-Thompson, vice president of the family business. It would cost regular customers about $7 a piece of clothing to dry clean, she said.

The event serves as a fundraiser for the OSU Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences chapter, and will help members get to the organization's career fair and training conference in March in Denver.

Crannell, who is the adviser to the minorities in ag and sciences chapter at OSU, said the group won an award as the best in the West last year.

Looking sharp as a career strategy is a movement that's spreading.

This fall, OSU student Jee Lee introduced the Career Makeover Wardrobe Event to Kyungnam University in South Korea, where she was studying abroad.

Having a nice-looking resume is critical, but looking professional is just as important during an interview, Crannell said. "It's the difference between getting the job and not. First impressions are the most important and the hardest to overcome."