Clothing Swap Held At First Baptist Church in Russell

Chariton Herald-Patriot August 21, 2014

Bill Howes, Associate Editor

   Recently the First Baptist Church in Russell held a clothing swap in order to help out the community.  This is the first year the clothing swap has been held and during it clothing was given away to about 30 families.  The pastor of Russell First Baptist Church is Marshall Felderman, who is the son of Mark and Becky Felderman, formerly of Chariton and now of Ankeny.

    "Our church has been looking for ways we can serve our community in a no-strings-attached way.  The clothing swap was a great opportunity to meet a need in the community and also give people a chance to give back.  Basically, we got the idea to do a clothing swap from other churches that have done it in the Des Moines area.  We asked the community as well as the church for donations," Felderman said.

   A couple of days before the swap, the Russell First Baptist Church members sorted through all of the clothes and arranged them on tables in the basement of the church just like you would for a garage sale.  On the day of the swap, the church members handed out cookies to everyone who came.  They had several church members from ages six to 80 helping out.

   "The clothing swap was a pretty big success and we're looking forward to making it an annual event.  We want to thank everyone who helped," Felderman said.