Nataraja's Closet

Community Needs: 

There are several thousands of Indian dancers within Massachusetts itself, and whether someone is a casual dancer or a committed one, we all need to buy costumes. However, costumes can be very expensive, and the jewelry alongside it is extensive, and inaccessible unless someone has a family member traveling to India. This process is time consuming and expensive, which is not an option for many low-income families. On the other hand, many dance teachers trade out costumes or sets of costumes between each other when they need to pull together a last minute show and cannot wait for a shipment from India. This system is often really inefficient, and I intend on creating an intermediate platform for this. Dance is an essential part of Indian culture, and should be made accessible for everyone.

Project Goals:

1. Create a website that explains our mission, and contains our contact information. This website will also post available costumes and jewelry that are up for donation or borrowing.

2. Create a Facebook intended for social media outreach to connect with different dance schools. This account will also post available costumes and jewelry that are up for donation or borrowing.

3. Network at different Indian cultural events, such as TAGB or Tamil Sangam(which often have vendor booths), to spread the word about our organization and collect contact information from people who want to donate clothing/jewelry, donate money, or get access to our website/Facebook.

4. Pick up donations of clothing or jewelry and post them on our website and Facebook, containing images, sizing, type of costume, etc

5. Donating the clothing & jewelry to people from low-income backgrounds, and allowing clothing & jewelry lending for dance schools who cannot buy costumes in time

6. Fundraising money to offer a scholarship to a dancer from a low-income background for a year

Project Plan: 

My plan is to create an intermediate service which collections donations of clothing and jewelry from dancers who don’t need it or have grown out of it, dance teachers who no longer have use for a particular costume or group of costumes, and parents who have costumes and jewelry lying around whose children no longer dance or are grown up and don’t need it. I will post these clothing and jewelry donations on my website and Facebook, and have listings available for people to look at sizings so that they can potentially borrow those items for a specified time frame, or get them as donations. I will get donations by networking with people at cultural events that happen, and reaching out to dance teachers on social media. I will also be open to receiving money donations so that I can raise money to give a scholarship to a dancer from a low-income background to continue their passion and learning in one of the classical art forms.  My website and Facebook will both have ways to contact the organization for people who want to donate or receive donations or borrow items. My service project aims to recycle clothing and jewelry to make it more accessible and affordable for people.

Progress

1. Set up Leadership Team - 6 members

2. Contacted dance studios, organizations

3. Reached out to cultural organizations to set up booths at events

4. Fundraised for dance scholarship

5. Collected dance costumes & jewelry & began donations