Support a Great Cause at your Local Goodwill Costume Bootique

It’s the question everyone’s asking…what are you dressing up as for Halloween? If you’re like us, you want an UH-MAZING costume but you don’t want to break the bank putting it together. And that’s where our friends at Goodwill can help!

Goodwills across Pittsburgh have set up their Halloween Bootiques with everything you need to put together the best costume. We love that you don’t have to buy that same old costume everyone has when you shop at Goodwill. Your creativity is endless, and you can really put your own spin on whatever you’re dressing up as!

We decided to pull together a Mr.-Rogers-approved Mr. Rogers costume with the help of Quinn at the South Side Goodwill. She recommends starting with the focal piece of the costume – in our case, the red cardigan. Once we found that, we set out to find our blouse. We pulled two different options, and then moved on to the pants. Or, in our case, a navy blue skirt…because we can easily wear it to work after Halloween, letting our money work double duty! The classic blue keds are already in our closet, but Goodwill has lots of options if you need shoes. Then we just needed to accessorize…which is where your personality can really shine!

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Depending on which outfit and accessories you pick, our Mr. Rogers costume only set us back $11 – for the skirt, cardigan, white blouse, and red bow tie – to $14 – for the skirt, cardigan, printed shirt, and scarf. The skirt, cardigan, white blouse, and black bow tie were $13.

You can’t beat that…unless you qualify for one of their discounts! Goodwill has a color of the week sale every week, where they mark down items 50% with a certain color tag. And they also offer a 25% discount for students and Port Authority Connect Card holders (on Tuesdays), active duty and veterans (on Wednesdays), and seniors (on Thursdays).

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AND if all of that wasn’t enough to convince you, you should also know that Goodwill is a nonprofit, so 90 cents of every dollar goes back into their programs and services. They help members of our community with:

• Education services – like English as a second language and GED prep and testing
• Disability services – like job training, community integration, and mental health services
• Youth services – to help prepare young people to be work-ready and career-focused
• Transition services – to help students with disabilities move from school to post-school life
• Supportive housing – to help individuals and families who are experiencing homelessness transition to permanent housing
• Job search services – in 2018, Goodwill of Southwestern PA placed 807 individuals in unsubsidized employment!
• Reintegration services – to assist individuals who have been in the legal system or are at risk for entering the legal system
• Community services – to provide income support services, financial education, tax assistance, and so much more

And that’s just summarizing all of their services and programs. We love knowing we’re helping the community while we shop!

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Did we convince you to hit up your local Goodwill’s Halloween Bootique yet? Make sure you tag pics of your costume with @goodwillswpa and #GoodwillHalloween! Oh, and don’t forget to pick up a costume for your favorite furry friend while you’re there 😉

This content was provided by a local, independent contributor to Made in PGH, a lifestyle blog.