By Hanne Fair

Our Community Closet Thrift store in James Bay Square has a new look! Thanks to a very generous donation of laminate flooring materials, and to the extraordinary efforts of our store volunteers, the store has been painted and the tired old carpeting is gone! A few extra family members and even customers pitched in to help, and volunteers put in many hours to prepare and paint the walls, move all the stock and fixtures out of the store in preparation for the floor installation, and finally to put everything back in place. What a dedicated team of volunteers and loyal customers! Thanks also to Top Notch Flooring for giving us a great discount on the installation of the flooring.

Our thrift store opened its doors on Menzies Street in 1999, and was initially established as a teen training enterprise known as T.E.N. Ware (T.E. N. stood for Teen Enterprise Network). The store gradually found a more natural footing as a volunteer program, but still provides retail experience for women seeking jobs, and great practice for new immigrants wanting to improve their language skills. In 2004 the shop relocated to James Bay Square Mall, and was renamed The Community Closet. Since that time the store has been providing a friendly shopping destination for inexpensive clothing. Our volunteers take great pride in giving excellent customer service, and creating an enjoyable, sociable experience. Profits from the store make a contribution to funding for our Community Services programs. These days thrift store shopping seems more and more like a good idea, given our current economic times and the need to “reduce, re-use, and re-cycle” to help our environment. The store relies on donations of gently used clothing in order to be successful, so when you are spring cleaning please keep our store in mind. Donations can be taken directly to the store or dropped off at James Bay Community Project at 547 Michigan Street.

Thanks also to all those who supported our Art and Treasures fundraiser on March 7. For the past three years we have collaborated with the Family Caregivers Network on Michigan Street to organize this event. Many local businesses, artists and individuals contributed items for silent auction and sale, and a good time was had by all as community members purchased works of art, hand painted folk-art chairs and marvelous donated treasures and silent auction items at bargain prices. JBCP’s share of proceeds from the event will go to supporting community programs such as our Seniors’ Connections and volunteer services.