When it comes to inventive ideas that can hook people onto the idea of giving back, our youths supporters have been the trailblazers.
Polytechnic graduates Christel Gan, 23 (L) and Rachel Wong, 22 (R) saw the potential for thrift shopping to not only benefit the planet and wallets, but also an easily accessible way for people to do good.
"FiveFinds was born out of a love for thrifted clothing as more sustainable way to shop. At the same time, we wanted to add a different take on the thrift scene with a do good, feel good angle (with a focus on social and environmental change) — and make it easy for everyone to participate,” shared Christel.
FiveFinds collect pre-loved clothing donations at a pop-up store in City Gate Mall and resells them for $5 a piece. For every pop-up period they run, a portion of proceeds are donated to a charity or cause close to their hearts.
“We give because we can — not only as an act of goodwill, but because we believe in reciprocity. Both of us have been involved in community projects before and we see FiveFinds as a facilitator for good. We believe that we could channel some of this good to the underprivileged and help to shine a light on the various causes,” said the team.
When they found Habitat Singapore’s #HomeThisChristmas campaign for vulnerable seniors and low-income families, it struck a chord with them. The pair decided to choose Habitat Singapore as their very first charity partner for their store launch in December.
Their hard work in building the FiveFind’s brand and collaborating with sustainability influencers on social media paid off. Within a month, they had raised and donated $1,000 to Habitat Singapore.
“We never expected to be able to spark so much interest from the public, and we are extremely grateful for the support! We have also met a lot of people with a similar vision and we realise the potential of growing FiveFinds not just for ourselves, but also for the community,” shared Rachel.
“We hope to empower people to make better choices with their clothing purchases and make it a norm for the masses to shop thrifted items with convenience and great affordability, and that motivates us to keep Fivefinds up and running as long as possible,” she added.
Habitat Singapore is proud to have supported the launch of FiveFinds Thrift Market. For coming up with an idea that is relevant and easily accessible to the youths in particular to give back, FiveFinds is deserving of our monthly Support Spotlight feature.
If you’d like to see more of what they have in store for FiveFinds, follow them on Instagram! Proceeds for their current pop-up period from now until 28 February at City Gate Mall are currently going towards the youth mental health campaign by the Singapore Association for Mental Health.
