Dear Editor:

Thank you to everyone who has helped with the First and Second Thrift Store move.

We have a community to be proud of. I’m writing on behalf of the board and volunteers of the First & Second Thrift Store, and we’d like to thank a number of individuals and organizations for their support as we plan our move to the Birchbark building.

First, we’d like to thank Mike Prom and the Voyageur Brewery crew for going above and beyond, refunding a month of rent that we paid them, storing some of our heavy items for four months, and then taking down our sign and moving those items for us. WOW.

We also owe a huge thanks to James Foulds, who has allowed us to store most of our fixtures in his heated garage up at Bennie’s. He now needs that space to get his own business up and running, and we’re more than appreciative of his generosity. He, too, helped us with our move.

And then there’s Shoshanna Matney, who lent us a huge garage space at her home for a large, enclosed trailer and a trailer of wood from our storage shelves. What a peach!

We have an anonymous donor, too, who gave us a generous grant to help us through these six months without income. THANKS!

There are many more we need to thank: the Cook County Council on Aging, who guided us through the process of launching ourselves as an independent non-profit; Jerry Starr, who loaned us his trailer to store merchandise; the Cook County Real Estate Investment Group, who have scrambled to prepare a quality retail space for us; and of course, the construction crews, who have been working around the clock to prepare our store—Jared Smith & Company and JJ Liljestrand. Hard workers, all.

Another round of thanks goes to the many volunteers who have helped with the move, both moving out of the Cobblestone Building, then moving into the Birchbark Building. And then—we thank our 45 store volunteers, who are eager to get back to work.

Last of all are the folks who donate quality items to the thrift store. They’re the bread and butter for our local non-profits, who get all the profits from the store. It’s been a long haul for all of us, but we hope to be open in July and to start taking donations in the coming weeks.

Sincerely,
Ann Marie Mershon for the First & Second Board of Directors and volunteers.