A Saturday With House of Tulip

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House of Tulip is a New Orleans based organization whose mission is to build "an inheritance for trans and gender nonconforming (TGNC) community in Louisiana". They are restoring a house in MidCity that, starting in spring 2021, will house up to 10 homeless TGNC people. Louisiana, a state where 1 in 3 trans individuals will experience homelessness, is in dire need of the help of organizations like House of Tulip. 

House Of Tulip's BreakOut House

On Saturday October 17th, House of Tulip hosted a clothing drive to collect clothing for the house's future residents and for others in the homeless TGNC community. I volunteered at the clothing drive by sorting and organizing all of the clothing that was dropped off. When I arrived at 9AM, it was very quiet and I was not confident that people would come and donate. By the time I left at 1PM, however, we had received so many donations that we ran out of boxes to put the clothes in. Dozens of community members, from a wide spectrum of backgrounds, dropped off bag after bag of clothing. It was encouraging to see that so many people in MidCity believed in the importance of supporting and uplifting the TCNG community.

I really enjoyed volunteering at the clothing drive and I am looking forward to volunteering with House of Tulip in the future. I especially enjoyed meeting the founders and board members. They comprise a group of intelligent, determined, and passionate young people. Being around them made me excited for future volunteering opportunities and reaffirmed my commitment to supporting the TGNC community in any way possible.

A picture from House of Tulip's instagram story (@houseoftulipNO)

Sorting through clothes with other volunteers, a picture from Times Picayune


A storage unit full of all of the donations we sorted and put into boxes


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