Starting October 17, Tahoma High School’s Green Team will be collecting donations of used, clean clothes for our very own student run thrift store.
Students will have the opportunity to browse the donated items for free from the store after school and during both Power Hours on October 27 and 28 in room A113.

Green Team Vice President Uynchae Jeon strongly encourages anyone interested in getting involved, to join green team! However Green Team membership is not required for students to participate in community events such as the thrift shop.

Jeon explains that while being part of Green Team means taking a pledge to help protect our Earth, it is impossible to be perfect.
“Even I will accidentally drink out of a plastic water bottle, it’s not expected for everyone to be able to use 100% sustainable items in their lives” she says.
To Jeon, it is the overall effort that matters most– “Imagine if everyone in Maple Valley was more sustainable than the average person nowadays, that would be amazing and have such a big effect on [our environment] as a whole.”

The upcoming thrift shop differs from previous ones, as past events emphasizes clean-ups and recycling while the store will emphasize the reuse of clothes.
This will be Green Team’s very first time hosting the thrift shop in hopes of highlighting the importance of reducing, reusing, and recycling.
Reusing is a primary focus behind Green Team’s event as overconsumption in the United States is extremely prevalent, especially in the fast fashion industry.
Fast fashion has long been infamous for being unsustainable and enabling excess consumption of clothing. This extra production of clothes is extremely detrimental to the environment as shipping and production release copious amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere.
Because of the inefficiency of the fast fashion industry, the appeal of their cheap and widely available clothing has been lost in the eyes of many people in favor of their local Goodwill.
Thrifted clothes might seem old and worn to some people, but to Jeon, they add something else.
“Clothes that have been worn before… they have a story… [they] just have so much more flair and personality from buying clothes from Shein.”
Jeon hopes that the themes of the thrift event will extend to future ones as well and to further encourage THS students to reuse and reduce their consumption.