By Clyde Noel
Town Crier Correspondent
Stand at the front door of the Costume Bank and you see densely packed costumes, hats and masks hanging against the wall. The shelves are lined with realistic-looking animal heads. All this is the result of backbreaking work by volunteers sitting at sewing machines in the back rooms.
The Costume Bank has more than 3,000 costumes available for rental, classified by sectors such as the Renaissance and historical figures.
Rentals are 48 hours, except at Halloween, when they are Monday to Monday. The most expensive costume is Father Christmas at $100.
“We have a lot of patriotic requests this year. People want costumes of Uncle Sam, Betsy Ross or something that expresses red, white and blue,” said Peggy Rosen, Costume Bank chairman. “Right now we are sitting here making the torch for the Statue of Liberty costume, and that’s not easy.”
“When we make a costume we put a lot of time into it,” volunteer Margaret Riddle said. “For instance, it takes us 68 hours to make a George Washington costume.”
Alice McCulloch, sitting behind a sewing machine, said the people who rent the costumes keep them busy. “We have to repair a lot of medium-size costumes because large people try to get in them.”
Halloween is one of the busiest times of year, but people rent costumes for other occasions, too.
“When people turn 40 they always want to throw a big party,” said Dorothy Mulhern, a 29-year volunteer. “People dream up parties, and we love to help them select what they want.”
The Costume Bank is a fund-raiser for the Assistance League of Santa Clara County. As a chapter of the National Assistance League, it is a non-profit, non-political and non-sectarian organization dedicated to helping people in the community.
The league offers services ranging from low-cost temporary housing for needy residents, to shoes for children and music programs for visually impaired youth.
The majority of the funds raised by the Costume Bank go to HOME (Housing for Medical Emergency), a 42-unit apartment building on Welsh Road in Palo Alto is fully furnished and for outpatients or families of hospital patients.
Another program is Operation School Bell, which provides shoes, socks and eyeglasses for needy children in the Los Altos area.
The Costume Bank is located at 169 State St., Los Altos. Store hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday, except around Halloween. Halloween hours, which started Monday and continue until Nov. 5, are 10 a.m. through 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday.
Volunteers are always welcome. For information on volunteering, call 941-4625.
