A Vital Center of Glenville

Written By: Marlene Osteen | Issue: June 2023

The Glenville Thrift Store has come a long way since its beginnings in the late 1970’s in the place vacated by the town’s fire department.

Once a small operation, sharing space with the Community Center, the shop has become a vital center of town life, and the primary funding source for the Glenville Community Development Center.

The store has grown exponentially from those early years when potluck dinners were held upstairs, and a handful of volunteers sold used clothing on the lower level. Capitalizing on the current frenzy for new-to-you items, the store uses its profits to help support the community.

In 2015 an improvement project was undertaken and the building remodeled. Today the thrift store occupies the entire structure, and an adjacent facility has been added to facilitate donations and sorting. Along the way, the store’s income has risen from $25,000 in 2016 to $125,000 in 2022.

On any given week a bevy of 40 volunteers work diligently, sorting, cataloging, arranging, and processing piles of donated items, helping to keep a steady flow of goods in and out of the shop. Donations include everything and everything – beyond clothing, housewares and furniture, they regularly receive merchandise from boats to telescopes to old typewriters, and health care aids (which they donate). The corps of workers, mostly women and retirees are proven money-raisers.

Working anywhere from 10 to as many as 40 hours a week, they enthusiastically and freely give their time and energy to help the many worth-while causes supported by the GCDC. Indeed, the community spirit embraces everyone connected with the shop, providing meaningful activity and friendship. Locals treat the store as a place to meet and socialize as well as to shop.

As Reverend Ralph Campbell, the GCDC’s president, told me, “As a member of a community you should know that when you have a need you can get help and that there’s a central place to go for direction.”

In Glenville that is the GCDC, which assists individuals and smaller organizations in a myriad of ways. Included this year were three scholarship awards, totaling $36,000 – an increase of $24,000 from the prior year. And, $47,000 in other funding help was provided in the form of grants to a variety of local organizations.

Two years ago, the Glenville VFW gifted their property to GCDC in a collaborative agreement to save the property and assure a meeting place for area veterans. Over the next year GCDC spent $90,000 in upgrades, remodeling what is now the new Glenville Community Center, creating a beautiful venue for local citizens.

For more information, visit facebook.com/glenvillethriftstore or call Ralph at (828) 506-1163.