It all comes back to the community.

In an event spearheaded by the Carter County Advisory Board (CAB), the Elizabethton/Carter Public Library and Red Legacy Recovery joined together to host a clothing giveaway inside the library’s community.

“It’s a beautiful thing,” Cherri Tinney, community resource specialist for the library and CAB member, said Wednesday. “This is one of the goals the CAB has been striving to accomplish in the community. This is yet another networking opportunity collaboration with many different people, organizations and groups to make something like this happen. This isn’t because of us, it is because of our community and the people that care about our neighbors.”

The clothing idea wasn’t the first idea, however, Tinney added. CAB previously looked at providing dinners to residents in the community but after seeing other organizations already offering those opportunities, the board moved swiftly to provide clothing to citizens. Following extensive discussions, CAB decided to orchestrate the two-day event to coincide with Thanksgiving.

The event kicked off on Tuesday, Nov. 22, and Tinney said, as of Wednesday, over 500 articles of clothing had been taken out by people. The support was overwhelming since the start Tuesday, she added, with individuals lined up to take part in the event.

Tinney added the library had to contact Red Legacy Recovery to bring over additional clothing due to the overwhelming support.

Red Legacy Recovery provided the bulk of clothing and Tinney commended their efforts and added the store’s thrift shop, which sells clothing to benefit their mission to assist with drug rehabilitation and other issues, would be a hot ticket shop to stop at, especially during the holiday season.

Along with the clothes provided by Red Legacy, Tinney added the citizens also stopped by to donate gently-used clothing.

The success from the event also expedited the timeframe for the next event. While the library was looking at making this annual event starting at the first of the year, Tinney said that the library will begin holding these types of clothing giveaways on Saturday, Dec. 17. After that day, the event will be held each month on the third Saturday.

Anybody looking to donate items can bring them in during those events, Tinney added. The specialist also thanked the work of Tammy Taylor, of the local UPS store, who provided a storage unit for the library’s supply of clothing already in place.

While the event was geared toward clothing, the library also received its fair share of plastic bags, Tinney said. The library’s Crochet Club is in the process of creating mats to help the homeless. With a mat taking between 600 to 800 bags to create, Tinney said the club was able to create eight mats with the bags brought in.

Due to its recent success, Tinney added a handful of local churches are expected to stop by the club’s next meeting to learn how to create the mats and begin to help out with the program.

The club is working in conjunction with the Appalachian Regional Coalition on Homelessness.