Oddz & Endz is a volunteer retail store that donates its earnings to a wide variety of area nonprofit groups like the Girl Scouts, Cook County Animal Allies, Higher Education, Violence Prevention Center, Grand Portage Elderly Nutrition Center and more. This year $34,000 was donated to the community by Oddz & Endz. Volunteers are always needed. If you are interested in helping, stop by and see how you can help. Oddz & Endz is located about two miles west of Grand Marais (in the old bowling alley) on the lakeside of Highway 61.
When Sharon Bloomquist, Arvis Thompson, EvaLyn Carlson and Sandi Furlow sat at S.O.B. eating breakfast and brainstorming, they never imagined how successful their new idea would become. Longtime friendship and mutual caring for this county community they call “home,” the four women shared a vision for the residents of Cook County.
With experiences in social services, education and ministry, they wanted to find a way to provide help to the many people who work two, sometimes more, jobs to be able to better afford to live here and be part of this unique community. In the face of rising housing costs they stumbled on the idea of easing that expense by providing affordable household goods and furniture. Oddz & Endz, a volunteer nonprofit resale store, was born.
Working with Bill Copeland, they were able to rent the former Howling Wolf/bowling alley building thinking that half would be for sales and half used to provide space for new small business starts. Starting the business with their collective resources, the women formed the nonprofit volunteer lead organization. Donations were requested from the community and all staff including management volunteered their time. Before the doors opened for business the donations quickly filled up the entire space of the building.
Barb Jansen, recently moved from the Twin Cities, took an interest in the project and became a member of the management team bringing with her experience in housing, decorating skills, and a common sense approach to sales.
For this, the third year of operation, payouts to the community nonprofits were $34,000 thanks to the wonderful donors, eager shoppers and faithful volunteers. The dollar-hours of each volunteer went to the local nonprofits to help them, in turn, provide needed resources to the community. Chik- Wauk museum, Grand Portage Elderly Nutrition Center, Cooperation Station Day Care, Cook County Animal Allies, Senior Citizen Center, Violence Prevention Center, the Community Theatre, Care Partners, Cross River Heritage Center, Higher Education, Boy and Girl Scouts, and local churches (Zoar, Trinity, Bethlehem and Cornerstone) were among the recipients of the payouts.
In addition to payouts, Oddz & Endz has provided space for Father/ Daughter dance, worked with social services, Salvation Army, churches and others to provide for people in the time of crisis or special need. It has been a place for the work release as well as state Job Training.
Even with our great volunteers, we have a need for interested people to spend a few hours a week by adopting a department in which they have passion, whether it is furniture cleaning, general dusting, organizing a department, tending to the flowers, or a plethora of other options.
Coffee is always on and we hope you will come for any reason: browse, chill, donate, volunteer, or just say “hi.”
Oddz & Endz is open Monday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Tuesday, Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; and donations are accepted only on days the store is open.
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