Here’s How Many Clothes Were Collected for Charity at the Philadelphia Marathon


Volunteers collecting discarded clothing after the Philadelphia Marathon.

Volunteers collecting discarded clothing after the Philadelphia Marathon.

Ever wonder what happens to all those shirts and gloves discarded at a big race? Here in Philly, a local organization called Clothes-pin, which we wrote about in depth here, sends in a team of volunteers to collect, bag and redistribute the goods to homeless shelters across the city.

They’ve been at it for a few years now, cleaning up at races like the Philly Marathon and Broad Street locally as well as big races in other cities, and cofounder Michael Resnic dropped us a note yesterday to give us the final tally on the massive haul from Sunday’s race. “Clothes-pin broke all previous records for clothing collection and donation at the 2014 Philadelphia Marathon,” he said. In all, the group collected about 22,500 articles of clothing—nearly double what they collected four years ago at the same race.

The volunteers hauled away about 565 trash bags full of clothing. Not bad, runners; not bad at all.

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