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A fitting tribute
By CURTIS KRUEGER, Times Staff Writer ST. PETERSBURG -- The new storeroom a few blocks off 34th St. N is filled with free business attire for people who want to get off welfare and find a job. There are fashionable women's business suits, a colorful selection of men's ties and polished leather shoes. The place is called Janet's Closet, named to honor Janet Gifford-Meyers, a former county economic development director who committed suicide while suffering from postpartum depression. It carries her clothes as well as her name. Displaying the wardrobe Gifford-Meyers left behind, Pinellas County's job-training agency on Friday opened Janet's Closet to give needy people a step up. It's at the WorkNet Pinellas One-Stop Career Center, 3251 Third Ave. N, in St. Petersburg. "This is exactly what Janet would have wanted," Steven Meyers said as he held the couple's year-old daughter, Rebekah. "I can't imagine a better use, a more important use, for her clothes." Gifford-Meyers, a former senior project manager at the Pinellas County Economic Development Department, disappeared from her house in Safety Harbor last April, three weeks after giving birth to Rebekah. Her body was discovered a few days later in the J.B. Starkey Wilderness Park in Pasco County, where she had overdosed on barbiturates. Gifford-Meyers, 41, suffered from postpartum depression, which often afflicts mothers just after birth. Her disappearance and death attracted national attention and sparked discussion about her condition. But her own cause was encouraging people to succeed, say several friends, family members and colleagues, who appeared at a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday. A former corporate lawyer, she was driven to work in the field of economic development and welfare reform because she believed in helping people become self-sufficient, said Cindy Jameson, a WorkNet Board member and Time-Warner executive. Her husband said she spoke often of the Judaic concept of tikkun olam, alleviating the injustices and suffering in the world. Gifford-Meyers had talked about wanting to create a place for people to get business attire to help them succeed, said Bonnie Moore, executive director of Work-Net Pinellas, the county's job-placement agency. WorkNet clients, who include people receiving welfare or job training, will be sent to Janet's Closet by caseworkers when they have job interviews. Donations of professional attire can be made between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. at the center Monday through Friday, and as late as 7 p.m. Tuesday. Call Ada P. Oli (727) 524-4344, extension 3026.
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