Second Chance Thrift Store celebrates first anniversary

The Second Chance Thrift Store at the First United Methodist Church of Red Oak is celebrating its first anniversary. Volunteer Sharon Smith attributed the success of the thrift store to the outpouring of community support they have received.
“The real blessing to our community has been the fact that people have supported us bringing things in. We have lots of people coming in and taking and buying things but we also have plenty of members of this community and the surrounding areas that share many of their items, including clothing, household goods, furniture, bedding, books, movies, games, and toys,” advised Smith. “We prefer our donations to be brought in on Friday just because we seem like we have a few more people working on that day than we do on a Saturday. If we get donations on a Friday, we can put it out for both days.”
Smith said when the thrift store was first opened, she and the other volunteers had no expectation it would be thriving as it is.
“Holly Paulson has been the one who kind of spearheaded this a year ago and in September we’d had a really successful garage sale. And the ladies being anywhere from their 60s on up to 80s that are involved in the church kind of questioned whether this would be a viable opportunity for us or not because of our age, primarily, but it has blossomed and snowballed into what it is today a year later,” commented Smith.
Volunteer Carol Sparr said initial plans were for donations on Friday and sales on Saturday, but now they accept donations and sell on both days.
Volunteer Jan Burnison said another surprise was the expansion of the thrift store from where it was initially.
“It was supposed to be just in the youth room and then we added a furniture room and then it got expanded to the Fellowship Hall. And when they bring things in, we have another separate room that we use for sorting so the store is definitely expanding,” said Burnison.  
Money raised from the thrift sales goes to sponsoring missions in Red Oak, as well as supporting Planned Pregnancy, Christ’s Cupboard Food Pantry, and Animal Alliance. Rescue. Some funds are used for the church’s own emergency money and the church also supports Father’s Delight in Africa, and saves some of the donated clothes for Haiti, or to give to people in need. The store also hosted a pool party, Vacation Bible School, and made a donation to Red Oak’s recent National Night Out event.
If the thrift store gets a donation of clothing that can’t be used, volunteers say they take it to the Red Oak Junior/Senior High School, which has two bins available and the clothing helps support some of the programs that they have at the high school.
If there’s a need in the community, Smith said they reach out when people don’t have finances to support their viability for living in a place and they help them out on an individual basis.
Burnison said one donated special item was given to a Red Oak resident as a gift.
“A Travis Kelcie number jersey came in, and we kind of put it back thinking of something special we could do with it We were eating up at Stadium 34 and Danny Dodd, who was one of the Nishna Productions people and who is now in the nursing home came in with his sister. He’s unable to speak. They both had their Kansas City Chiefs sweatshirts on. And so then later Sharon, she says maybe Danny Dodd would like to have that jersey,” advised Burnison. “Sharon talked to his sister about it and she approved the idea and we took it over to him. Oh and he smiled and he grinned and then the nurse said she’d take us down to his room. Well his half of the room was all decorated with Kansas City Chiefs memorabilia, so that jersey definitely went to the perfect person. We occasionally like to save things back and think of people who would directly benefit from it..”
Smith reiterated it was the support of their volunteers and the community that kept Second Chance thrift Store going strong.
“Not only are they coming in to bring the donations in but they’re supporting us through their monetary donations as well as what they pay for when they buy it and take it out. That gives us more room to get more stuff. That’s kind of what it’s all about is selling off the old donations and bringing in the new donations,” stated Smith.