xp_logs | Betsy and Sooraya; clothing drive

xp_dust posting in

Betsy comes by to drop of some stuff at Sooraya's clothing drive and helps to figure out a goal for all the ugly Christmas sweaters they received.

"Let's see... two more sweaters over here." Sooraya dug through the large bag, quickly sorting the different kinds of clothes in separate piles. "Two skirts and a pair of trousers..." Interrupted by the knock on the door, she called out: "Come on in.”

Betsy had briefly considered just leaving the bag of clothes outside the door but decided against it on the basis that people working for something as controversial as mutant charity might get twitchy when faced with unattended packages. She propped the bag up on her hip and used her free hand to push the door open instead. "Umm, good morning?" She was pretty sure it was technically still morning at least. "I have some clothes that I wanted to drop off." She gestured needlessly at the large plastic bag she carried.

"Morning. And those clothes are very welcome." Sooraya accepted the bag with clothes, neatly stacking it against the wall with some other bags. "It's Betsy, right? I think I've seen you around on the journals at the mansion."

“Yes, that's me,” Betsy nodded, rubbing her elbow. While the bag wasn’t exactly heavy, it was big and unwieldy to carry. “I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage though?"

"I think we haven't run into each other before. I'm Sooraya Qadir." Quickly shaking Betsy's hand she continued: "I hope you had a good holiday season?”

“It’s nice to meet you, Ms Qadir. And I did, thank you. I went to visit my brothers back in the UK. ” She glanced at the clothes piled around the room. “I imagine it gets busy here around the holidays, with everyone getting rid of unwanted gifts?"

"It's just Sooraya, Betsy. And yeah, we have had a lot of that. You'd be surprised how many people came to donate their 'ugly Christmas sweaters'." She gestured at a small heap of clothes in which the colors red, green and white dominated, some seemingly with bells on them. "I'm just not sure yet what we are going to be doing with those.”

Betsy suppressed a small shudder at the sight of the sweaters and tried to think of something helpful. “Well, from what I understand ugly sweater parties are becoming an American tradition, so maybe you could sell them at a discount as a fundraiser in later years?,” she suggested. “Or possibly just burn them for warmth. Although by the look of those things, there’s a chance the fumes might be hazardous."

"You know, that might not be a bad plan. The fundraiser I mean. We'd need to check if they are of good quality enough to be sold, but still..." Sooraya grinned at Betsy. "With a specific call for sweaters sometime in October or so it would be a good way to fund something related to Christmas."

The telepath shrugged. “It was just a thought. Personally I don’t see the attraction in dressing as terribly as possible but people seem to like it, so…” She took a closer look at a green sweater adorned with Rudolph with a light-up nose. “A lot of these look like they’ve never been used, or have only been worn once, so they should be good from what I can tell."

"No accounting for the stranger things people enjoy." Sooraya agreed, pulling over a large cardboard box that used to hold banana's. "It at least means we can start putting those sweaters to the side." She pulled the top one from the pile and started folding it. "This one isn't so bad though. Like a Mrs. Claus minidress." Sooraya held up a red and white sweater dress with jingling bells.

“I am suspicious of any piece of clothing that jingles, myself,” Betsy confessed. “So, where do all these clothes normally go then? Do they all get donated or do some get sold and then the proceeds are used to help people?”

"A little bit of both actually. Everything is sorted and checked for quality. What is still directly wearable is donated and what isn't is sold for the raw material and the proceeds are used to fund various projects." Sooraya explained. "Most of the clothes go to the 'clothing shop' associated with the food bank, though it's not really a shop. I can show sometimes if you'd like too.”

“Thank you for the offer, I may take you up on it sometime. How does it work if it’s not an actual shop, then?”

"Just a sec." Sooraya quickly received a small bag of baby clothes and thanked the man before returning to the Christmas sweaters. "It kinda looks like a thrift shop, but people pay a small symbolic amount if they can and otherwise they can select some of what they need for free. We've found it actually helps people's self esteem if they can 'buy' the clothes if possible.”

“I can imagine. Is it mostly visible mutants or are there a lot of people who have been outed as well?” Betsy asked curiously. “I don’t know what the situation is like here, but I’ve heard it’s worse than what we had in the UK."

"It's a bit of mix to be honest. I'd say about half of the mutants are visible in some degree." Sooraya replied after a moment of thought. "But though it's far less then before M-Day, this area is still known as 'mutie town' and it still carries that stigma. But that also draws certain groups, so it even draws many other non-visible mutants."

"A place of our own," Betsy mused. She considered for a moment, then came to a decision and pulled out small notebook, quickly scribbled down her number and tore it off. She passed it to Sooraya. "Here. I'm mostly bouncing around the mansion doing nothing and you could probably use more volunteers, so if you ever need one give me a ring."

"Thanks, you never know when an extra pair of hands might come in handy." Sooraya carefully tucked the paper away in her pocket. "You need to get going?”

“Yeah, I probably should let you get back to work as well,” Betsy nodded. “Good luck with getting rid of all the sweaters!"

"See you later, Betsy!'