Volunteers team up to reopen thrift shop

Sarah Minkewicz

After more than six months of clean up efforts, the Port Washington Twin Pines Community Charitable Thrift Shop is ready for business.

“It’s a miracle to see what we have now, including the shiny floors,” said Marie Marcellino, the thrift shop’s new executive director, following the store’s re-opening last Friday.

The thrift store at 382 Main St. had fallen into serious disrepair when the store’s former executive, Edna Turner, was no longer able to handle its day-to-day operations, Marcellino said.

She said Turner also suffered from a lack of support in recent years, something she said she witnessed as a board member.

“At that time when I joined the board there was a very viable board, but they aged out or moved away, or lost interest. All of the above and it’s not terrible, it happens but that board was not being replaced. And before you know it Edna was doing a lot of stuff on her own and that’s pretty crazy,” she said. 

It was then, Marcellino said, that she reached out to the community for help and received an overwhelming response from many individuals and organizations who helped refurbish the shop including the Port Washington Community Chest, RLH Management, Home Run Electric, the Dejana Foundation and Merrill Lynch. 

Marcellino said the volunteers helped scrub the store, upgrade the lighting and remove old equipment. She added that they also set up separate rooms for toys, a ladies shop with fitting room, and a men’s shop. 

“Once the volunteers started to work, we started to see just how much was here. Wonderful stuff,” Marcellino said.

“Over the past several months much has been accomplished,” Twin Pines board member David Allen said in a statement. “With volunteers and community service participants under the extraordinary efforts and guidance of Stuart Hermann and Sarah Hogenauer. 

For more than 40 years, Twin Pines Coop has provided food, household goods, clothing, toys, games, books, strollers and other household items that make a difference to low income and hardship case residents. 

Officials said in a statement that Twin Pines was financially unstable and month to month financial shortfalls were often supplemented by retained funds and records were incomplete and/or non-existent. 

“Executive Director Edna Turner was unable to continue as only person in store” Allen said. “Edna’s Son, Tom Turner, is a hard worker, protects his mother, had no home and appeared to have issues of his own. The overall situation came to a head when the fire department and marshal effectively closed the store until multiple corrections were accomplished. Due to the above and what appears to be lack of focus, Twin Pines monthly revenue was reduced from some $4,000 per month to approximately $2,000 per month. Rent is $2,950 with additional expenses of approximately $500 per month. Until recently, this shortfall had been made up by a grant from the PW Community Chest and occasional other donations.”

“The store, and its overall operation, were victims of time and age,” he added. “It was overcrowded with merchandise. The store was less than handsome and the clutter overwhelmed the positives.”

A new board was convened in the fall of 2015. There are still two entities; Twin Pines Cooperative and Twin Pines Consumer Association. 

Officials said the decision was made to have a common board to lead all the pieces in concert. 

“At this point when this new board took over there was no food contracted to come any longer,” Marcellino said. “So if we want to do that we’d have to reestablish our contacts with the food world. And we would like to but that’s going to take time.”

“The food stuff that was here was pretty much sitting on the shelf and getting outdated, and that became one of the key things we did when we started refurbishing the place, was to eliminate all of the out-dated projects that happened to be here,” Allen said. 

The food products that were not outdated went to food outreach centers around Port Washington, such as Our Lady of Fatima, Allen said. 

The store has been reorganized with a focus on treasures for shoppers and essentials for those in need. 

A sign on the walls of Twin Pines describes the new attitude that reads, “everything here is for sale, if you need it for yourself or your family and cannot afford it, talk with us.”

With the opening, Twin Pines inaugurated a membership program. Members will receive a regular newsletter, notices of special sales and charitable opportunities among other benefits. 

The memberships are available are available at the shop, and will be available during HarborFest at the Twin Pines booth. The cost of the one year membership is just $10. 

Twin Pines is also developing a grant program to help insure Twin Pines can continue its charitable efforts, officials said.

The Twin Pines Thrift Shop now has regular hours Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

Those interested in participating in this exciting renewal of a Port Washington tradition are invited to call Twin Pines at 516.883.9777.

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