More miscellany to be found at Miss Mona’s Rack
Miss Mona’s Rack
Opening Saturday, Oct. 13628 E. Burnside6:30 to 9 p.m.
Proper appreciation of thrift store shopping takes patience and dedication. If you think you’ve got what it takes, you will be rewarded handsomely, although it would be ill advised to expect greatness the first time out. Finding the perfect powder blue “members only” jacket or rock-star quality T-shirt can be a daunting task. If you go into a thrift store expecting to be blown away by all of the cool threads you will be sorely disappointed. A dedicated shopper has to be willing to rifle through a whole store full of crap for that one gem. However, when all the hard work and frustration over coming up empty handed finally yields a pair of poly blend Levi’s cut to the perfect length for $2.50, the victory feels very sweet indeed.
The options for good bargain basement shopping sometimes feel a little limited here in Portland. Some stores like to pass themselves off as thrifty because they sell second hand clothing. Sorry folks, but a used T-shirt that costs $10 is a rip off. What constitutes a true T-shirt bargain is a deep 50 cent bin, and a new store is opening with just that.
This Saturday Danzine, a nonprofit organization started by and for sex workers, will open their new thrift store. The store, appropriately named Miss Mona’s Rack, will offer inexpensive clothing and a helping hand to those in need. Danzine has been in existence since 1995 when they began with a basic photocopied four-page publication. Then in 1996 the organization moved up to the traditional magazine style according.
“The organization’s main focus is to help people in both types of the sex industry, commercial and survival, to recognize dangerous situations and protect themselves,” said Danzine founder, Teresa Dulce.
Danzine funds programs like the Hepatitis C project, needle exchanges and community health education. The organization also started a sex worker film festival in 1999 that was held in San Francisco the following year and will be held in Tucson this year. You can look forward to Portland playing host to the festival again in 2003.
With the addition of Miss Mona’s Rack to the Danzine organization they hope to accomplish three things, create a form of community job training, provide affordable clothing and create a source of income for the nonprofit organization. It will also be a place for sex workers to go if they need advice or a helping hand from a peer.
The grand opening festivities will include live mannequins, prizes and the Miss Mona Superhero. People interested in donating clothes are welcome to do so every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Donations on the evening of the opening are welcome and may just get you a prize. They request that donations be restricted to clean clothes to fit adults and teenagers only.
