BRMS students visit Mobile Hope’s ‘Graffiti and Silk’ thrift store

Students from Blue Ridge Middle School visited a new thrift store, Mobile Hope’s Graffiti and Silk, in Purcellville. Mobile Hope is an independent,, 501(c)3 organization missioned to serve homeless and at-risk youth up to age 24, and they recently opened a thrift store, Graffiti and Silk, located at 860 E Main Street in Purcellville. 

In addition to selling second-hand clothing and household items, they have a much larger goal. The vision of Graffiti and Silk (https://mobile-hope.org/graffiti-silk) is to help reduce the amount of clothing that goes to a landfill by reselling, upcycling, or even redesigning clothing into something new.  

Holly Myers, Blue Ridge Middle School’s Family and Consumer Science Teacher and Consumer and Technical Education Department Chair, connected Graffiti and Silk’s vision to many of her students’ course competency requirements.

After the official opening of Graffiti and Silk, Holly Myers used walking field trips to the new establishment in Purcellville for an authentic, engaging, and relevant learning experience. 

Upon arriving at the store, students were greeted and given a tour by Allyson Ruscitella, the Director of Development of Mobile Hope. Students then began a scavenger hunt to find articles that sparked their interest and fit curriculum standards. Additionally, students were able to see sustainability in action. 

Blue Ridge students helped repair jeans in the “Happy Jeans” section of the store.  They were also able to watch members of the Blue Ridge Fiber Guild use a loom that was donated to the store. Some students even worked the loom and contributed to making a rug made from t-shirt pieces.

Lastly, students interacted with a vintage scale that is used to weigh clothes as they are purchased. Students were able to experience first-hand what it feels like to save a pound of clothes from going into the landfill.

Blue Ridge Middle School and Mobile Hope have had a successful business partnership for three years. Over that period of time, FACS students have contributed to Mobile Hope by making toiletry wraps for Mobile Hope’s “Listen for the Honk” mobile support program.  This year, in addition to sewing 100 toiletry wraps, students used t-shirts that Graffiti and Silk were not going to sell to create t-shirt pillows.  Mobile Hope also supplied jeans that needed holes repaired and the students in Mrs. Myers’ classes creatively repaired the denim using vintage quilts and then returned them to Graffiti and Silk to put on the sales floor. 

This authentic experience connects Blue Ridge Middle School students to their local community and supports the larger Loudoun County Public School Strategic Plan by providing students with rigorous and culturally responsive instruction that develops all students as knowledgeable critical thinkers, creators, communicators, collaborators, and contributors.

Students Jenna Kabban and Mikayla Greene said, “The field trip was fun and we were allowed to put together outfits, and see all the clothes at the store.”  Brock Till, an 8th grader, added that “the scavenger hunt was engaging.”