Amherst thrift shop hopes to open by March 1

Amherst’s landmark Episcopal Thrift Shop has a new home —- supporters are hoping to open by March 1 and the store’s trademark community donations will continue.

The new storefront will be at 194 South Main St., which formerly was Windows, Doors and More, owned by Wayne Campbell. It’s between Travelers Restaurant and Lees’ Courthouse Deli.

As soon as Campbell completes his work in the building, then Alice Morse, the longtime thrift shop manager, will move in and figure out how to make the best use of what will be a significantly smaller space for the shop.

“For a little, little community, town, it’s all of those in this community who have donated” and kept the thrift shop alive, Morse said. “It’s totally interfaith.”

The thrift shop has disbursed hundreds of thousands of dollars to people in need in Amherst County. The 20th anniversary was last year, after a fire devastated their shop at South Main and Second streets.

An early morning Sept. 24 fire, caused by an electrical problem on the second floor that was being used as a warehouse, damaged most of the items in the shop.

Steve Crosby, the then-interim county administrator, granted the shop permission to use a parsonage at the former Amherst Baptist Church at 190 Second Street to collect new items, across the street from the county government building on Washington Street. They erected a sign facing Second Street.

The volunteers still are collecting donations there, but the location might change. They have scheduled sales from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Ascension Episcopal Church, 253 South Main St., Amherst, on Jan. 20, Feb. 3 and Feb. 17.

The thrift shop passes on proceeds for everything from food banks to literacy programs and during its history has given out $656,197 through last year, said Morse, who stressed that the money benefits the public.

“They think the money goes back to the churches, but it doesn’t,” said Morse, who has managed the store at South Main and Second streets for nine years and volunteered for three before that.

In the second quarter of last year alone, the store handed out $8,657, for such cases as food banks, Citizens for Adult Literacy and Learning, or C.A.L.L., fire and rescue departments and money for the needy for rent and utilities

The nonprofit store earns no commissions on the sales, and business typically is brisk.

More than 70 percent of money collected goes back to the community, and the rest is used to keep the store open.

The store has a board of directors comprised of members of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Clifford and the Ascension Episcopal Church in Amherst.

To donate or for information, call Morse at (434) 907-4238.