The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of SIU at Carbondale. Except during vacations and exam weeks, The Daily Egyptian is published Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and TWThF during the summer semester."

The Thrift Shop provides discount costumes for a cause

Lucille Ashworth paused in front of the glass display case, clutching a small white vase.

Ashworth returned to the store she helped found nearly 40 years ago, The Thrift Shop, to purchase a porcelain vase, which she planned on filling with chrysanthemums, to giving to an ailing friend. Though the location has changed, the spirit of the small nonprofit thrift store remains the same.

"I knew The Thrift Shop would carry little trinkets like this," she said. "I wanted to come in and see what we had going on here."

Church Women United founded The Thrift Shop in 1967 to serve low income and working families by providing used clothes, appliances, books, furniture and more for discounted prices.

Now, The Thrift Shop uses a voucher program that allows needy families to shop for free up to a predetermined amount, Church Women United Board President Bonnie Brackett said.

"Our mission evolved from selling clothes to low income and working families to now we have a voucher program," she said. "Organizations deem them to be needy then they come over with vouchers."

Each month, the shop gives away more than $3,000 worth of goods to 125 to 130 families.

Brackett said competition from other new thrift shops in the past four years has hurt the store donations and the profits from sales.

She said up until 2000, any profits the store made were given away in the form of grants, but when other vintage shops opened, the donation pool dwindled.

"We've been lucky to break even," Brackett said.

This time of year, the store is particularly busy with college and high school students looking for vintage Halloween costume apparel.

Betty Black, a 17-year employee, said aside from Halloween, her favorite costume-shopping customers are drag queens searching for stage outfits for Upside Downtown show costumes.

"The guys come and buy a lot of their stuff here," she said. "It's funny to see the big men come in and look for little dresses. They're fun to interact with."

The workers agree the best part of the job is meeting and establishing relationships with regular customers.

"I feel like I'm doing some good," Black said. "There's regulars that come in over the years, and they recognize you even out in public. And that's nice."

Julia McQueen is in charge of the voucher program at the store and has come to know many of the voucher families over her two-year employment.

"Even though people one day might have an attitude, the next day they don't," she said. "I like meeting different people."

Brackett said shopping at The Thrift Shop not only benefits the consumer, but the money also goes to a good cause. A company form St. Louis regularly picks-up unsold clothing, purses, belts and shoes then ships them out to third-world countries.

Ashworth said she fondly remembers starting the store and is still proud of Church Women United accomplishments, such as starting the Carbondale Day Care Center, which is now the Eurma Hayes Center, bringing the first meals on wheels program to Carbondale and promoting racial equality during the 1960s.

"It was a group of women, and we knew we had to start something," she said. "I've got a long recollection of good memories."

 

 

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