Jackson Street Hall ‘busia’ launches charity closet for kids

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — There is a new place Grand Rapids families in need can turn to for children’s clothing.

Jackson Street Hall officially opened its Busia’s Boutique Tuesday afternoon. It is in the back of the hall, which has recently undergone a renovation .

The project was the idea of last year’s busia queen, Lucy Preston.

“I do feel there’s a need in this community,” Preston said. “I thought it would be great to have mother and children come in and get clothing, diapers, formula.”

It took just under a year to secure the space, gather the clothing and get everything organized and on display.

“A lot of volunteers from this hall, my husband, and a lot of vendors that helped volunteer time and money and supplies, they all loved the cause and said, ‘Let’s do it,’” Preston said. “A lot of things were donated — all the cases that have the clothing in them, churches have donated clothes, we’ve done a lot of garage sales, just reached out to family and friends.”

She has been working with the hall to get everything ready for the opening.

“I just said, ‘Let’s just have it look nice and clean and fresh.’ As we go a long, we’ll add our little busia touch, which means grandma,” Preston said.

Busia’s Boutique is partnering with Sibley Elementary across the street.

“We have a member at the school that she keeps in touch and lets us know and I just let them know that they can come here and receive 10 items a month for free,” Preston said.

The opening of the boutique is coming just in time to make sure the kids in the community are warm for the winter.

“We have a lot of winter coats and boots that people donated, hats and scarfs, and I just want to make sure that every child has that. We had a lot of people that donated socks. I heard there was some kids that came to school without socks all winter,” Preston said.

The boutique is open by appointment only. You can call the hall at 616.774.9011 to make arrangements.

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