To the Editor:
The CareConnection Thrift Store has been a blessing to the people of Glencoe in the past years. It serves Glencoe in many ways. Our proceeds go to Hospice to pay for services for Hospice patients that insurance does not pay. It helps make their last days more comfortable and sometimes more meaningful.
It also benefits the people of Glencoe by making affordable clothing and household items available to them. It is a place that people can donate their gently used clothing, bedding and many other items they no longer use, including dishes, vases holiday items and anything they no longer use. Someone else can use those items, and there are treasures to be found at the thrift store. And we are so grateful to all the people who donated to the store. And it also keeps many items out of the landfill. It also benefits the migrants when they come to Seneca to work. They come with very few personal items. They purchase many items at the thrift store, including clothing, bedding, dishes, pots and pans, personal items, etc. The store also benefits from them. They are part of our community for the summer months and they depend on us for services.
The store also serves the cities around us. We have many out-of-town customers, and when they come to Glencoe, they also shop at other Glencoe stores, maybe have lunch. Helping other businesses to thrive. It is so sad that we have lost so many retail stores, especially clothing stores in the past. We have very few places to purchase clothing; therefore, we are forced to go out of town to shop. And we all know what happens then. When you are shopping out of town, you will probably buy groceries and many other items out of town. Soon our downtown will be a ghost town.
The reason we are telling you this is that we (volunteers) have been informed that our store will be closing at the end of 2016 due to the condition of the building, which is no longer safe for us to work in. We are very saddened to hear this; it is a big loss for the Glencoe area. We are in the process of looking for another building to move into. We may also have to look for another nonprofit to manage us. At this time, the nonprofit that we have now does look promising. Most of our volunteers would still be interested in working at a thrift store if it would benefit a nonprofit group in Glencoe. We have produced some impressive profits from the store in past years and we believe that it can grow larger with a larger building which could benefit another nonprofit group and the citizens of Glencoe and the surrounding areas. We know that there will be start-up expenses, but in a few months that would be paid back by the thrift store profits.
Sincerely signed by volunteers:
Gloria Hilgers, Ardis Brands, MaryKay Engelmann, Sharon Cyzcalla, Karen Rusten, Jan Benton, Jan Giese, Elaine Sommers, Shirley Troska, Gladys Tonn, Diane Heil, Sandy Braun, Linda Roisum, LeeAnn Armstrong, Claudia Thunstrom, Mopsy Karg, Sherry Henkelman, Marge Farrell, Helen Jensen, Marilyn Templin, Joan Proehl, Darlene Damman, Sandra Proeschel, Lois Steinhaus, Barb Seipel, Sandy Damman and Theresa Johnson
Links:
[1] http://glencoenews.com/category/section/editorials