by Kent Jennings Brockwell
Staff Writer
Three women can be thanked for the conception and success of the Hubbard House’s Career Closet - Mary Lou Davis, Nancy Burrows and Oprah.
For the past five years, the local shelter for battered women has been maintaining a Career Closet, a large walk-in closet filled with slightly used women’s business attire and accessories.
Nancy Burrows, a volunteer at the Hubbard House who maintains the Career Closet, said women at the shelter may take items and outfits from the closet to prepare for job interviews or just to have a nice outfit.
“It just helps these women so much,” said Burrows, who you’ll remember as the chief aide to Rep. Tillie Fowler. “You wouldn’t believe what it does for them.”
Burrows said the idea for the closet came up when she and Mary Lou Davis were watching a program on Oprah about the national Dress for Success program, a program that provides underprivileged women with dress clothes.
“We both saw that program and started talking about it and we both said, ‘Well, we could do that at the Hubbard House,’” Burrows said.
Shortly after that, Davis contacted the Hubbard House about the idea and Burrows said the shelter loved it.
“Mary Lou ran with the ball,” Hubbard said. “When she got an idea she was really a go-getter.”
The Hubbard House allocated a large walk-in closet on the top floor of the shelter for the Career Closet and Davis, wife of Winn-Dixie Chairman Dano Davis, and Burrows started sending letters to all of their friends asking for donations.
After decorating with some wallpaper, putting up a large mirror and installing several clothes racks donated by Rosenblum’s clothing store, the Hubbard House’s Career Closet was up and running.
“Then we started just collecting clothes, ” Burrows said.
Shortly after the closet was established and going strong, co-founder Davis died. Today, the closet is the Mary Lou Davis Career Closet.
Burrows said working on the closet has been very rewarding for her but has really opened her eyes to the amount of abuse there is in the community.
“Most of us don’t have a clue what they go through,” she said. “One woman came in one day and said ‘I can’t thank you enough. My ex-husband threw a fire bomb through the window last night.’ She was standing there in her pajamas and robe. When they come in here they don’t have any clothes at all.
“It has certainly opened my eyes to what abuse can be. Not all of the women are women that you would think have had a tough life. I have seen women in here that could have been my daughter. It could be me. Some come from good families and they just got married to the wrong person or got on the wrong road at some point. You can’t judge these people.”
Burrows said most donations to the closet come from private individuals but sometimes they receive corporate donations as well. She said many of her friends are the biggest donors.
“I have some friends that will call me four times a year and they will just load up my car,” she said. “I don’t know where they get all of those clothes.”
Different organizations have also helped the donation process in the past too, she said. Most recently, the Northeast Jacksonville Women Business Owners Association held a drive that produced more that 70 items for the closet.
One Hubbard House employee said the closet is very important for the shelter because it gives the women better self-esteem by helping them to look nice and giving them individual attention.
“This closet is so awesome for our clients,” they said. “We have casual clothes downstairs but if they want to go out on a job interview or if they just want to feel special, they can have something nice to wear.”
Besides helping the women feel better about themselves, Burrows said the closet offers the clients a chance to better their lives.
“A lot of these women have never been out on their own before,” she said, “so it is pretty difficult to go out and work for the first time and get a job and be on on their own.”
In the future, Burrows would like the Career Closet to offer more than just clothes. She is working with a few businesses in the community to try and get services like hair cutting and etiquette training brought in to the shelter periodically.
“Instead of just clothing, I would like to have something for the whole well being of the individual,” Burrows said. “I would like for four times a year for someone to come in and do hair and nails and then have someone come in and talk about manners and how to improve you self awareness.
“There is something about when you feel good about the way you look and the way you feel inside, if we could branch out in that way I really think it would help out a lot.”