Last week, Weber Innovation High School sophomore Hudson McFarland announced in an email to the Standard-Examiner that Second Flight Thrift — a student-run thrift store he pioneered — will be holding a pop-up market at the school open to the public on Thursday from 3-6 p.m.

McFarland told the Standard-Examiner Monday that Second Flight Thrift operates much like a regular thrift store would.

“Second Flight Thrift is a student-run passion project,” he said. “We get clothing donations from different businesses and people and we re-sell that clothing at the school for a lower price than retail so that kids can get affordable and fashionable clothing at the school.”

The thrift pop-up is also expected to have accessories and jewelry.

Photo supplied, Hudson McFarland

McFarland said he’s had experience selling vintage clothing in the past but this is the first time he’s operated the pop-up through the school.

“Me and one of my friends, Conner, we both love thrifting,” he said. “We have our own clothing businesses. We also like to sew and we sew a lot of our own clothes. We found out that you only need three people to start a club at the school. So I went and talked to the principal, we weren’t able to start a club, technically, because it’s not part of the school curriculum, so we have to call it a passion project. We both love sewing and fashion so we decided to start a thrift store inside the school so we can use both of our loves.”

He said he’s excited to see the pop-up store coming to fruition.

“I don’t think I’d be able to do this at a public high school,” he said. “That’s why I think Innovation High School is so great. They gave me all of the resources I need to start my own passion project to do a thrift store in my school. I think it’s a really cool experience that I just had to talk to my principal and they gave me my own classroom and a bunch of money to get started.”

McFarland said plans are to run the store within the school for students first on Thursday morning before having the public store out in the afternoon. Future plans are to make it a permanent feature within the high school.

“I think it’s important for students to get affordable fashion,” he said. “It’s really hard for some people to afford clothes, so we’re trying to get stylish and fashionable clothing at the school for a reasonable price so that people can look good and be comfortable.”

He added they hope to do more pop-ups that will be open to the public.

“We’re trying to do one, probably once per month, so we can really get our name out and make more money for the school,” he said. “All of the proceeds are going back into Innovation High School, so we’re trying to get our name out there and do more pop-ups so we can get kids from outside our high school to shop here.”

McFarland said they’ve currently received more than 20 large garbage bags worth donations for Second Flight Thrift along with donations from Reborn Vintage on 25th Street and others.

He added that they are looking at doing more than just selling the clothes that are donated.

“We sew a lot of our own clothes as well, so if there’s stuff in the store that doesn’t sell, we repurpose it and make it our own because everyone in the club at least knows the basics of sewing,” he said. “If there’s something in the store that doesn’t sell or is torn apart, we’re going to repair it, fix it and make it wearable again.”

McFarland said Second Flight Thrift is accepting donations of clothing and accessories from anyone and that donations can be dropped off at the front office of Weber Innovation High School.