Now in its 14th year, Goodwill Goes Glam! 2025 presented by Bank of Hawai’i Foundation will run Thursday, Aug. 14 to Saturday, Aug. 16, celebrating sustainable fashion and shopping – all for a good cause.
Activities, including a gala, fashion show and shopping experience will be held at the Blaisdell Exhibition Hall. Free parking will be available at McKinley High School, as well as at the Blaisdell for a fee.
Goodwill Hawaiʻi aims to raise awareness and support around $400,000 over the three-day event to advance its mission “to help people with employment barriers reach their full potential and become self-sufficient.”
Funds will be reinvested back into the community to continue supporting local job training and employment, organizers said. It will take about 200 to 300 volunteers to pull off.
“Every year, we tap into a local designer and this year’s theme is ‘Common Thread’ by Rumi Murakami, known for her modern, soft tailoring. She shares Goodwill’s common values of nonprofits, what community does, being eco-forward, etc.,” Kelley Cho, Goodwill Hawaiʻi director of public relations and communications, told Aloha State Daily. “The fashion show will feature both men’s and women’s looks, primarily upcycled from the Kaimukī store down the street from Koko Studios, where her line is sold."
Cho said Goodwill Hawaiʻi spends roughly 9 months up to a year curating donations and goods – shoes, clothing, home goods and more – for the sale, which is free to attend for the public.
For a full schedule of events for this year’s Goodwill Goes Glam! and to purchase tickets, click here.
Other happenings at Goodwill
Last month, Goodwill Hawaiʻi and Big Brothers Big Sisters Hawaiʻi opened a new Opportunity Center in Kakaʻako intended for at-risk youth and adults with intellectual disabilities programs and youth mentoring programs, respectively.
“This new campus further strengthens our commitment to uplifting the community thru the power of work,” said Katy Chen, Goodwill Hawaiʻi President and CEO, in a statement. “When people think of Goodwill, we want them to know that not only are we a thrift store and donation center, but that we’re also helping some of our most vulnerable residents.”
The new center also houses executive and admin offices. Goodwill’s workforce development and employment programs serving low-income families, individuals and immigrants, will remain held at its Honolulu Career and Learning Center on Beretania Street. According to the organization, programs serve more than 7,000 individuals statewide annually and are supported by the revenue generated through its retail operations, among other financial endeavors.
Work to combine community programs and retail into one larger space in Hilo also continues – what Goodwill is calling its new Big Island Campus, Cho said. She noted that the nonprofit acquired the 67,000 square-foot campus at 17 Makaala St. in 2023, with plans to build out the store by the end of the year. The full renovation will be completed over the next few years, she said.
“We’re planning to move the Hilo store to a temporary location, while we build out the new one,” she told ASD. “Overall, the campus will create more efficiencies for us and the community.”
A 2024 grant application to the State of Hawai’i estimated the Hilo center will create 12 to 15 new jobs.
On Kauaʻi, Goodwill will host a reuse collection event held at the Kaua‘i Resource Center from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 29. Donations of clothing, small furniture, children’s toys, books and shoes will be accepted.
The main purpose of the County of Kauʻi’s Reuse program is to “assist thrift stores by facilitating the off-loading of unsaleable, but still useable items as well as reducing the amount of reusable items going to the landfill,” its website states. “The goal is to allow the movement of unsaleable items out of thrift stores so that more capacity can be built up for the public to donate new material that can be sold.”
Finally, Re-use Hawai’i and Goodwill Hawai’i recently teamed up to reduce waste and ramp up recycling. The organizations, along with the City and County of Honolulu's Department of Environmental Services, launched a reusable materials drop-off site at the Kapaʻa Transfer Station in Kailua.
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Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros can be reached at kelsey@alohastatedaily.com.
