If the recession has got you down, try Dress Best for Less, an upscale resale shop where your purchases also support Piedmont schools.
Though Halloween costumes mostly vanished by Oct. 9, (a child- size $6 Winnie-the-Pooh costume was one of the few left), Dress Best for Less will have a ski sale on Nov. 7.
Most of the items on sale will be ski clothing. Ski boots, skis and poles will not be sold but the ski sale does offer an occasional snowboard.
In the meantime, Dress Best for Less offers hundreds of articles of clothing for men and women, as well as household items, books, toys, jewelry, handbags and more.
Paper Bag PrintingAmong the items on sale in mid October were a 36R men's Claiborne suit for $45; a 26-piece tea-and-dessert set for $35; pearl and sterling earrings for $20; and the Star Wars special edition trilogy on VHS for $5.
"We're the best-kept secret on Piedmont Avenue," said store manager Janice Chipman. "We have top-quality clothes and top brands at affordable prices."
For those with a less discerning eye, the Dress Best for Less marking room offers one additional room crammed with even more clothes, books, board games and all kinds of assorted items, from boxes of kids' soccer shoes to seven different walking canes, to a telescope.
The marking room, which has a garage-sale atmosphere, is located at the Carriage House at 799 Magnolia Ave. and is open from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesdays, 10 a.m. to noon Wednesdays and 10 a.m. to noon Saturdays. On the last Saturday of the month, shoppers can take home a bag of any items for $10.
Donations also can be dropped off at the marking room during open hours. led replacement bulbs Once items are donated, they are sorted, with the higher- quality items delivered to the Dress Best for Less store on Piedmont Avenue.
"About 10 percent of the stuff we get donated gets sold in the store," said Gayle Sells, a member of both the board of directors for Dress Best for Less as well as the Piedmont Educational Foundation. "It's good enough to be resold."
Sells estimates that some 65 percent of the items donated at the marking room are then donated to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul of Alameda County, with the remainder being deemed good enough to stay in the marking room.
But the Dress Best for Less store is where most of the money is raised -- approaching $50,000 in 2009.
That money goes to the Piedmont Educational Foundation, which raised a total of $394,191 for Piedmont schools in the last school year. Among other things, that money is used for science and technology grants for middle and high schools, and an endowment fund that supports counseling, elementary library services and elective and honors classes in the middle and high schools.
"Even in Piedmont, we're suffering from state cutbacks," said Lisa Norris, president of the board of directors that oversees Dress Best for Less. "Even though $50,000 doesn't sound like a lot in the scheme of a local education budget, it does fund projects in schools. The Piedmont Educational Foundation definitely relies on us for those monies."
Local residents also rely on Dress Best for Less, for
embroidered patches both buying and donating.
"It's been a great thing for us, knowing we're helping to raise money for a good cause," said Piedmont resident Soojung Hobi, who said she
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