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Thrift store gets major makeover, supports Diakonia

(Jan. 12, 2017) After about a week and a half of renovations, the new and improved “Used to be Mine Thrift Store” opened back up last Wednesday morning to a line of expectant customers that wrapped around the small parking lot in West Ocean City.
The store, an extension of Diakonia that opened in 2009, carries everything from clothing and furniture, to board games and various household items. Proceeds support programs across the nonprofit, which benefits more than 10,000 people and distributes more than 100,000 pounds of food each year.
Diakonia Executive Director Claudia Nagle said the store was tiny when it originally opened, but that it expanded twice within the first year, taking up additional storefronts in the shopping center. Today, the space covers more than 3,600 square feet.
“What it does for Diakonia is it allows us to support some of the activities that we provide to the community,” she said. “It provides a wonderful opportunity for people to come in from the community and to volunteer with us and get involved, and the revenue that gets generated through the thrift shop is invaluable – it just fills a lot of those holes that otherwise we wouldn’t have funds to do things with.”
The latest remodel and expansion was spearheaded by Diakonia President Allyson Bernard-Church, with assistance from Nagle, Board Member Tracy Tilghman and a small handful of others.
“When I became president in June, some of the people that are involved in Diakonia came and said ‘we love the thrift store, but it needs a little updating,’” Bernard-Church said.
She said she used her experience as a realtor to plan the revamp.
“I’ve done renovations and flipped houses and done TV shows and stuff, so I thought ‘I can do this,’” she said. “We decided to do it over the holiday because it would be quieter, and they’re closed for a week between Christmas and New Year’s.”
She gathered a wish list from volunteers and said about 90 percent of those requests were fulfilled.
“We put up new shelving and brightened it up and did some remarketing, and we had some volunteers come in and redo the countertops in our ‘Diakonia blue,’” she said. “It was time. It’s been so successful that we haven’t been able to address [the shortcomings], and I had a lot of really good friends and community support to help.”
That included her own family, visiting from Connecticut during the holidays.
“I put a hammer in my dad’s hand too,” she said.
Tilghman said she brought additional “muscle” and helped install the new shelves.
The end result, by all accounts, is a cleaner, more welcoming space that should benefit both the shoppers and the volunteer staff, and by extension the entire operation.
“It’s incredible. I can’t wait to hear what the public’s reaction is,” Bernard-Church said. “We had people consistently looking in the windows when we were working.”
She said shoppers range from those that have nothing, to the cream of the community.
“Everybody loves a bargain,” Bernard-Church said.
Along with raising funds and offering up deep discounts, Nagle said the store helps provide certain items for needy people in the community.
“The thrift shop is certainly an opportunity to raise some funds to support our mission of emergency housing and homelessness prevention and our food pantry and those other services we provide, but also if we have someone who comes to Diakonia for assistance and needs some help [the shop] allows us to have some furnishings for people who may have lost their home in a fire or something along those lines,” she said. “We use the donations that come in with our guests who stay at our emergency housing program, and we also work with the department of social services if they have clients that need furnishing.”
Nagle said about 100 people contribute to running the space, almost all of which are volunteers. That includes not only those who help run the thrift store, but those in receiving and others who help sort through and distribute all of the items.
“We have a group of people who come here on Tuesday mornings to sort and stock the shop. It really is something that’s amazing to watch happen, and the fact that Ally brought the board along and brought the volunteers and showed that leadership and showed recognition to the needs of the shop is really remarkable,” she said. “It shows one more time and one more way how much we value the work of the volunteers and how much we appreciate them. Without them we wouldn’t be able to do what we do – I’m constantly reminded of that.”
Bernard-Church underscored how broad of a push all of Diakonia’s volunteers put in to help raise the funds that drive the nonprofit’s many programs.
“What I want the community to know is when we go out and solicit donations – because we certainly can’t run on just what the thrift shop does for us – that we work, every day, really hard at doing everything that we can before we go out to the community,” she said. “We have incredible community support, but I think that not all the community understands that we do that. This [store] is just a little piece of us.”
Workers at the thrift store cannot accept donations of electronics or used bedding, but they are accepting items in good, working condition that are clean and well cared-for. Cash, check or electronic donations are the best way to help, according to Nagle, because they are the most flexible and the store tends to have storage issues.
On that note, Bernard-Church said Diakonia is looking for additional storage space, which would ideally be heated and have electricity.
“If somebody has a storefront that’s available until spring – we would love to have it year-round, but we really need something for the next four months,” she said. “That is a need that we are looking for.”
Visit the Used to be Mine Thrift Store on 12507 Sunset Ave in West Ocean City, next to the Culture restaurant. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday.
Donations can be delivered to the main office on 12747 Old Bridge Road in Ocean City.
For more information or to donate items or funds, call 410-213-0923, visit www.diakoniaoc.org or visit www.facebook.com/usedtobemine.