“Oooh! Isn’t this so cute?” squeals Doris Quinn, a GCC registration help-line worker, as she shows off a pair of denim capris embroidered with hot pink flowers that exactly match her blouse.

She’s wearing the pants already, after having found them only moments before on a clothes rack in the student center.

Quinn, and several other women, were at the student center on Tuesday to shop for clothes during a Save Our Classes fund-raiser.

The event raised $1,650 for the foundation, according to Ann Ransford, director of communication and marketing for the Foundation.

Twelve racks of women’s clothing filled the space. Shoppers hunted through an assortment of jeans, shirts, skirts, jackets, tanks, and dresses, in prints and solids, casual and dressy.

The event was put on by R&S Enterprises, a company run by the husband and wife team of Rick and Sonia Henkin. They hold sales of overstock and close-outs from department stores like Macy’s and Bloomingdales at discounted prices, and then give a percentage of the gross profits to the foundation.

Rick Henkin said there’s enough profit from the sales for everyone, “they’re successful for both parties.”

The idea for their company started after Sonia Henkin started buying items from Tijuana and selling them over ebay. Rick said he started doing a little research and discovered that clothing was a big category on ebay, with 1,200 to 1,300 auctions a day.

They began buying clothing by the truckloads from liquidators and sold the items from their homes, calling the events, “Friends of Friends Sales.”
Quite a few of their friends were in non-profit organization, and the idea to do the sales as fund-raisers came up, said Sonia Henkin. “I’ve been fortunate,” said Rick Henkin. “I like the idea of giving back and I just felt like, here’s the opportunity to do something good, give something back.”

Joy Lottie, with the GCC business division, also likes the idea of helping out the college and her wardrobe, and said she was “finding a lot of stuff.”

According to Ransford, the Foundation plans to hold the event again in the fall.