ACTS offers jobseekers professional clothes

As a former contributor to charities, the now unemployed Christopher Klein hopes to once again donate instead of being on the receiving end.

In the meantime Klein needs a little assistance. The 49-year-old Dale City resident had just finished with his initial interview for food stamps at the A.J. Ferlazzo Building on Wednesday when he discovered a pleasant surprise.

Action in the Community Through Service was holding its second annual PurSuits event, which is designed to get people looking good as they begin or resume a career.

By noon, more than 60 people had milled through racks of gently used, donated professional clothes that lined the main lobby. Each individual was allowed two outfits. A Mary Kay cosmetics specialist was also on hand to donate makeup and give tutorials on how to apply it.

Klein said he’s resuming his job search 12 years after retiring from the IT industry to tend to his now estranged wife. He supported himself through a Christian ministry over the last decade, but he is getting a divorce and needs to get back on his feet financially.

“I believe God will bless me,” Klein said.

Vonceil Malm was dropping off some Section 8 paperwork when she came across the event. The Dumfries resident has been without a job for nearly two years, and her husband, who works at a local car wash, has not been getting many hours of work thanks to all the rainy weather this spring.

Malm said she’s looking for any job that ties in with her professional experience and is trying to keep her spirits up during her job search.

“What you look like helps boost your self-esteem and the stuff they have here is good stuff,” said Malm, a mother of three children.

Woodbridge resident Christina Mennella will graduate from George Mason University this week with an online journalism degree, and as a single mother was in need of some interview clothes.

“I am living off student loans, so I don’t have a lot of money,” Mennella said. “And I am a single parent, so I’m statistically challenged.”

Whatever clothes that weren’t handed out will be shipped back to ACTS’ thrift stores. ACTS Development Specialist Beth Lewis considered the second go-around for PurSuits a success.

She said the numbers from this year are comparable to last year’s inaugural event and that people were waiting in line to shop before the event started at 10 a.m.

And Wednesday’s worthwhile event not only attracted those in need but those who, once they got there, showed interest in volunteering for the Dumfries-based organization, said Lewis.
Staff writer Kipp Hanley can be reached at 703-878-8062.