UniCycle continues uniform appeal
Dance attire added to list of donations
Published:Saturday | August 26, 2023 | 12:09 AMShanel Lemmie/Staff Reporter
Diversifying their charitable offerings in their sixth year, UniCycle is moving to service students who dance with the requisite attire this year.
The school uniform recycling initiative collects gently used uniforms and redistributes them to students in need, free of charge. Though initially aimed at providing only boys’ khaki sets and later white shirts, the non-profit, which has flourished under the leadership of siblings, Rhys and Maria Greenland, as founding member Jordan Nakash continues her studies abroad, is now adding dance attire to its repertoire.
“We have also added a specific component that I am leading called Come Mek Wi Dance which is tied to my love of dance and my goal of helping to spreading the joy of dance sustainably,” Maria explained.
She said since launching the initiative’s Instagram page, Come Mek Wi Dance, they have received around 300 costumes.
“Thanks to a very generous donation from the Company Dance Theatre, I was already able to donate about 300 costumes and some dance gear to the schools competing in the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission’s dance finals with the help of the Ministry of Education and Youth’s arts unit. They were so well received and were distributed really quickly because the experience of dancing in proper dance attire and costumes invokes a different, validating, and empowering feeling,” she said.
Forming out of her love for the art form, Maria said she had been investing in her personal development in the field and hopes to employ some of that new insight to her new initiative.
“I have also taken an online course in dance therapy and have tried to use some of what I learned in some of the dance programmes I am involved in like the Jamaica Junior Theatre when I led warm-ups, for example, as dance captain for the 2023 show. I plan to recruit Come Mek Wi Dance champions, who dance at different dance schools, to help collect year round, but this year we are also trying to collect at Fontana as part of the UniCycle drive. So if you have old physical education or workout gear [such as] leggings, sports bras, leotards, ballet skirts and tutus, you can drop them off in the yellow collection containers along with uniforms. I hope to do more with dance therapy this coming school year.”
Though Rhys will be headed overseas to pursue his studies while Maria spearheads local operations, he said he is still keeping UniCycle on his mind.
“I am headed overseas to study, but I plan to join the Caribbean club on campus,” he explained, “and maybe there will be a way to fundraise there to leverage school supplies to go with the uniforms annually and even make connections to help set up UniCycle in other countries in the region. That has been one of our goals from the very beginning.”
Rhys said since the pandemic, donations have become more difficult to attain, but the non-profit is holding on and hoping for growth.
“It has been harder to get donations to be honest, but we are trying and hoping more families who can donate gently used uniforms, physical education gear, shoes, socks and dance attire, etc. will do so at Fontana. We continue to promote at our school and other schools as best as we can,” he explained.