A line of boots ready for winter at the Williamstown PTO clothing sale.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The PTO clothing sale at Williamstown Elementary School is about more than hand-me-downs.

 

It is about lending a hand to the teachers in the classroom.

 

The sale returns for its 10th academic year on Sunday, Oct. 5, from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the school cafeteria.

 

It is the major fundraising activity of the school's parent-teacher group, whose other fundraising endeavors include collecting Box Tops for Education, running a "Walk for WES" walkathon, organizing school pictures and operating a "spirit store."

 

Last year, the clothing sale raised about $8,000, according to PTO President Joan Jones.

 

"We support the teachers through things like Staff Appreciation Week, and the money we raise goes to individual classroom activities and materials for the library," Jones said. "Each teacher is allotted an amount they can use in whatever way they want.

 

"For example, my daughter last year was in kindergarten, and there was a parent who did a silk-screen T-shirt project that the kids designed at the end of the year. ... That's the kind of thing they do."

 

The money also helps fund field trips, the annual beginning-of-the-year "Watermelon Social," the field day held in June, materials for the school library, and a scholarship program that rents instruments for pupils wishing to participate in the school band whose families cannot afford the expense.

 

"Then we also do things that are enhancements of things that aren't in the curriculum like [this month's] Words Are Wonderful festival," Jones said. "That's a PTO-run event that the PTO does on its own outside of the school curriculum. We bring visiting authors in. Community readers come in and read to the kids."

 

Last week, a group of volunteers had taken over half of a currently unused classroom to sort and price some of the thousands of shoes, boots, coats, hats, dresses, pants and other items that make up the sale. The organizers collect the gently used items year round and give them rock-bottom prices.

 

Veteran sale organizer Cecilia Hirsch said the sale has benefits that go beyond the money raised.

 

"Every now and then, we wonder if it's worth it," Hirsch said. "We could raise as much money with a golf tournament or a fancy dinner. But the thing we always come back to is that it's green."