Volunteers with God’s Heart have been busy sorting clothes and getting them ready for Saturday’s giveaway.

“If they can use it, they can have it,” said Deb Powell, a board member for the non-profit Albany organization.

The giveaway will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at two locations: The Shop N Kart parking lot, 2000 Queen Ave. S.E., and behind Vineyard Christian Fellowship, 2110 Santiam Highway S.E.

The clothing giveaway, held the third Saturday of every month, has been going on since December 2004.

It started with a group of friends who in summer 2004 offered to share their family picnic with people in need at Monteith Riverpark. That Christmas the friends collected gifts for the people they had met.

Now, about 300 to 350 people turn out once a month to pick out new-to-them clothes. On one Saturday last year 600 people came, Powell said.

Most of the people who come are the “working poor,” according to Powell. The organization has helped clothe foster kids, women starting new jobs, and people who have lost their home to fire.

On Thursday at the God Heart’s storage facility, volunteers Richard and Lois Grooms of Albany were sorting through clothes that had been donated by individuals and community groups.

“I just like helping people,” Richard Grooms said. “That’s the way it should be.”

The donated storage space that God’s Heart has been using will no longer be available to them at the end of the month.

They are looking for another place to store donations and possibly give out clothes during the week.

For more information about God’s Heart or to help with storage space, call Powell at 926-0514.

Clothing donations can be dropped of during the hours of the Saturday giveaway.

Powell said furniture, if it dropped off at the start of the giveaway, is usually taken by someone in need. Large furniture items, however, cannot be stored.