{"id":232272,"date":"2021-03-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/transforming-lives-one-piece-of-clothing-at-a-time\/"},"modified":"2021-03-12T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T08:00:00","slug":"transforming-lives-one-piece-of-clothing-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/transforming-lives-one-piece-of-clothing-at-a-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Transformando vidas, una prenda a la vez"},"content":{"rendered":"

Por LANIE ALFARO<\/p>\n

Shamine Linton opened Sharia\u2019s Closet (named after her daughter) in 2013 with hope, joy and love in mind as she formed a grassroots organization that was called to serve its community. In pre-COVID times, the non-profit shop located at 6244 El Cajon Blvd. in the College Area served thousands of community members.<\/p>\n

\u201c3,785 individuals. That\u2019s the most I have served in one year,\u201d Linton said. \u201cWhen you break it down and hear every story, it\u2019s heartbreaking but also uplifting because you get to be a sprinkle of hope, a sprinkle of joy, a sprinkle of love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Transforming<\/a><\/p>\n

Over the past year, Sharia\u2019s Closet kept its doors open to anyone who needed clothes, free of charge. But it is so much more than just clothes to Linton.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe work we are doing at Sharia\u2019s Closet is not just serving people, we\u2019re providing hope, love, and dignity. You can\u2019t sell love in a bag,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Linton saw firsthand the impact of COVID-19 on various clients as the pandemic took a massive economic toll on San Diego County and beyond. Families and individuals served by Sharia\u2019s Closet have a variety of backgrounds: active duty military, at-risk youth, current foster care, disabled, experiencing disaster or crisis, domestic violence, homelessness, etc.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat truth doesn\u2019t make it to the news, but that is the reality of people\u2019s lives that we\u2019re serving in San Diego,\u201d she said. \u201cI serve people that you\u2019ll never hear about or read about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Linton hopes to change the narrative in these underserved communities by building new pillars of hope through the services available at Sharia\u2019s Closet.<\/p>\n

\"Transforming<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhere I grew up, the true sense of family extends beyond just your immediate family. You\u2019re acting in an unconditional, selfless way and that is transferred to everyone around you.\u201d<\/p>\n

During Novem\u00adber 2020, Sharia\u2019s Closet did a series of Facebook posts called the Stories of Gratitude Campaign. In these posts, people who received assistance shared their testimonials on how this organization helped them get out of the situations they were in. Sebastian, a client who received aid wrote, \u201cWith their help, I was able to go to several interviews with a new confidence. I received a referral through other companies and eventually landed a good job. People don\u2019t always think about clothing, and how something small like that can make a big difference. Just getting some nice clothing helped change my career, and changed my life for the better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Linton said that the individuals she works with often are nervous to ask for help because of the societal stigmas but her message is: \u201cThere\u2019s no shame in asking for help.\u201d<\/p>\n

One\u2019s situation or background does not deter them from getting assistance, Linton added.<\/p>\n

\"Transforming<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople come and we don\u2019t speak the same language, but I speak a love language. Being able to transfer where your standing to putting yourself in their shoes, that is a beautiful transformation. When we package the clothing, these receivers know that someone genuinely cared. They were hand-selected, prepared for their body type. Everything is specifically for them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Given the free time many people had during this pandemic, Linton said there has been a large influx of donations, but some of the donations did not show the love and dignity Sharia\u2019s Closet hope to convey in their work.<\/p>\n

Over quarantine, Sharia\u2019s Closet \u201cbecame like a dumping station,\u201d she said. \u201cThat is not the intent. That\u2019s the disheartening part for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Linton wants to encourage people not to \u201cforget what its like to be outside of ourselves,\u201d especially as they go through their closets to donate. She encourages all who are hoping to donate to educate themselves and see what sorts of clothes the organization is looking for.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is rewarding when people actually take the time to research and watch the tutorials \u2014 learn how to wash and size the items,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Even more importantly, she asks for a shift in perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis could be you. Think about the type of energy you\u2019re transferring or giving,\u201d she explained. \u201cWhen you\u2019re donating something that brought you joy, you\u2019re going to transfer that same joy to someone else through that piece of clothing. Maybe up until this point, that is the most love they have felt in their entire life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The work of Sharia\u2019s Closet has not gone unnoticed over this past year. On Feb. 9, Sharia\u2019s Closet was the recipient of the Outstanding San Diegans award from San Diego City Attorney Mara W. Elliott.<\/p>\n

But the real reward, according to Linton, is \u201cto see the thank you and smiles \u2014 there\u2019s not a word to express that. What that feels like and means, that is the joy in my soul.\u201d\"Transforming<\/a><\/p>\n

Sharia’s Closet has given out to date 14,199 bags of clothing to individuals, but they will not stop there. Linton believes this is a long-term effort to love and help the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe environment in the community and family, those are the pillars \u2014 the developmental stages of helping you to transform into the person you\u2019re meant to be and called to be,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Lanie Alfaro is editorial intern for San Diego Community Newspaper Group.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By LANIE ALFARO Shamine Linton opened Sharia\u2019s Closet (named after her daughter) in 2013 with hope, joy and love in mind as she formed a grassroots organization that was called to serve its community. In pre-COVID times, the non-profit shop located at 6244 El Cajon Blvd. in the College Area served thousands of community members. […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1120,"featured_media":232273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11558","_seopress_titles_title":"Transforming lives, one piece of clothing at a time","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11558,11551,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-232272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mission-times-courier","category-news","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}