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Community Touch to open new thrift store in Bealeton
Community Touch is increasing its fleet.Noah's Ark, which is operated by the local non-profit organization, started four years ago as an outreach resource for needy residents to receive clothing, furniture, and household goods. Times and circumstances have changed dramatically since then and the Ark has had to shift sail as well.
On April 4, Community Touch will open the new Noah's Ark Thrift Store in the Bealeton Village Center, two doors down from the Bloom grocery store.
The organization will continue to operate Noah’s Ark Outreach on its Jericho Road property. The outreach store will return to its original mission of providing free merchandise to those who qualify through a voucher system implemented last fall.
In September, Noah’s Ark made a shift from giving away merchandise (after a short, in-house application process) to requiring those seeking donations to acquire a voucher from participating agencies. It also began selling some items and expanded store hours from a few hours on Saturday to weekday times as well.
This new location offers a chance for both of those ventures to grow, explained Community Touch Executive Director Tyronne Champion.
With tons of items in the original ark building and in storage, Champion said that Community Touch has enough merchandise to stock both stores and address several different needs at once.
“We were doing really quite well at the other store. We were growing, but people had a hard time finding us where we were,” Champion said. “We can serve more people in this central location that's more public.”
The thrift store, which will carry a mixture of furniture and clothing, is meant to serve residents who may not qualify for vouchers, but still need to stretch their budget. And, in this economy, that’s a lot of people, Champion said.
“Economic times are driving that,” he said, adding that in researching the idea of starting the thrift shop he visited several in the area. “They were just packed.
“We're not only meeting our needs, but we're meeting the needs of the community. We'll be the only clothing and furniture store in Bealeton. We really believe we're going to increase business here.”
The primary objective for the thrift store, however, is to raise money for Community Touch’s other outreach efforts, Champion said.
As the economy has worsened, Champion said the organization has seen grant funding dry up. To make ends meet, the Community Touch board began looking in to the option of operating a thrift store.
“All of the money will go back into the shelter and the food pantry,” Champion said, adding that Community Touch served 366 families at the food pantry and 76 individuals at the Victory Transitional House in 2008.
One half of the new 2,900-square-foot space will be devoted to furniture while the remainder will be filled with mens, womens, and childrens clothes. The new space also includes a dressing room and a receiving area so that items can be cleaned up a bit before they're placed in the store. A dock out back offers a place for drop offs, Champion said, noting that Noah's Ark will add a bin for collecting donations.
“This is three times more space than we have at the Ark,” Champion said, noting that the new store is possible thanks to a $20,000 grant from the Loeb Foundation in Warrenton. “We couldn’t have done this without them.”
With a few paid staffers, Noah’s Ark Thrift Store will be manned primarily by volunteers, Champion said, adding that volunteers from Women of Wonder, Cornerstone Baptist Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and True Deliverance Church of God have committed to helping out in the store. Volunteers from True Deliverance Church gutted the building, which was the former location of the Bealeton branch of Fauquier Library, and still more volunteers were busy moving items from the original ark to the new store this week.
But, before the move started, Champion enlisted some local talent to spruce up the space with hand-painted murals.
“I wanted to get the community involved so I called the local schools,” Champion said. Students from Fauquier High School and Cedar Lee Middle School lent their artistic abilities to the venture, painting a mural of, appropriately, Noah's Ark and a multitude of animals in the new store.
The new Noah's Ark Thrift Store will be open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
While some voucher items will be available at the Bealeton store, for the most part, vouchers will be fulfilled on Saturdays, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., on the Community Touch property.
Though it will return to Saturday-only hours, the outreach store will provide quality items to needy residents who receive a voucher from a participating community group, Champion said. Removing the retail side of the store from that building will allow those shoppers a quieter experience.
The voucher system was implemented last fall when Champion and the Community Touch board became concerned that some people were taking advantage of the system and reselling items for personal gain. Now those in need of furniture, clothing or other items must first go through a participating agency – like Fauquier County Department of Social Services or Fauquier Community Action – to receive a voucher for the items. Last year, Noah’s Ark served 1,763 households, Champion said.
The outreach store is closed temporarily during the move, but will reopen April 11.
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