Simply Saved fashion show

The Simply Saved Fashion Show has grown a lot within the past ten years.

According to Irene Mulcahey, who helps run the Simply Saved Thrift Store, this year’s show on Monday, June 12 raised $34,429.98 that the store will give out in grants. This is nearly seven times what the show raised in its first year. “We started with raising $5,000, and we’ve gone up every year since then,” she explained.

To date, the fashion show has enabled the thrift store to raise $216,478.

Simply Saved’s Fashion Show has traditionally kicked off the Hay Daze festivities. The old and new Miss Janesville royalty have always been involved with modeling. This year, it was Miss Janesville 2022 first attendant Ariana Aguilar joining the four contestants Sophia Coulsey, Lydia Huelsnitz, Ava McNair, and Abby Sobolik in modeling the clothing. Other models included various people who are regulars at the thrift store.

During the fashion show, the ladies of Trinity Lutheran Church provided entertainment with skits. This year’s show was catered by Infinity Catering of Janesville. “Overall, it was a really good night,” Mulcahey said, claiming that her time with Simply Saved has seemed to go quickly. “I’m very surprised it’s already been ten years since we started,” she said.

According to her, things fell into place from the start, as though it was meant to be that Janesville host a locally owned thrift store. “There was a church in Waseca that was getting rid of clothing because it couldn’t keep giving to people in need,” she explained. “They had racks of clothing available for us. It helped us get started with our clothing line.”

The $34,498 raised this year will mostly benefit Trinity Lutheran Church, as it is in Simply Saved’s mission statement to give their grants to the church. “Lots of the money has gone for tech uses in the past,” Mulcahey elaborated. “Other funds have gone to new office equipment.”

Other grants have been used to improve and support the Trinity Lutheran School curriculum, helping fund new equipment for physical education classes, and helping fund the Trinity Lutheran Church Mission Society. “We also totally fund the vacation bible school,” she said. “Our outreach goes not just to our members at Trinity but the whole community.”

Outside of funding Trinity, Simply Saved has also provided grants to Whispering Creek Nursing Home, the Janesville Library, Janesville Matters, JWP baseball, and the fire department.

All the funding is thanks to the people who donate to Simply Saved. “We’re thankful to be in the community and be able to do what we do,” Mulcahey said.