The bud of an idea for a community service financed through community donations can come from the strangest places.
Nestled in the centre business core here, the Mount Forest Thrift Shop recently recorded a milestone of $250,000 in sales since it first opened three years ago. The idea for the shop, however, didn’t come from a group of citizens wanting to launch a venture to raise money for the community.
Instead it followed a different route, spawned by circumstances related to a Canadian Cancer Society decision in 1997 that got community members riled and pushed them to do something with a service that provided transportation for local people suffering from cancer to treatments as far away as Kitchener-Waterloo and London.
The cost for drivers to transport patients from this rural community to appointments was paid for by the society until a pivotal decision that year to centralize the procedure. The idea presented by the society was to have rides for local patients organized through a central telephone number out of Hamilton.
It was an idea that didn’t sit well with a group of local residents involved in the service and their 25 drivers, recalled Grace Copeland, who was organizing the rides locally and felt the service was essential in a community where public transportation didn’t exist.
“We had a closed door meeting with the drivers and I said, ‘It’s up to you drivers to either go it on your own, but if you’ll stay with the Canadian Cancer Society we’ll stay with them’,” Copeland said of the initial response to the plan presented by the society.
The society’s decision to centralize the service was presented to local organizers for consideration.
“That wasn’t the thing to say to us,” Rene Moyer, who now manages the Thrift Shop, recalled.
The plan was for the society to use a limited number of the drivers for the rides needed. The group felt the plan would leave many patients seeking treatment in the lurch and not able to team up with local drivers they already knew.
“They said you have the best drivers and we want to try a pilot program and we want to have your drivers. The drivers were told where they would go.”
Prior to the new plan, drivers were often teamed up with patients for trips. It was a way for drivers and patients to get to know each other on trips to appointments far afield and difficult for those getting treatment. The group felt the arrangement at the time was the best for drivers and patients.
The drivers, according to Copeland, had decided they would resign after hearing of the society’s plan.
The Mount Forest group heard about a similar situation in Georgetown, where a local group had broken loose from the society and established their own home-grown, transportation system.
“We went down to Georgetown a couple of times and learned how they did things,” Moyer said.
Moyer and Copeland agree there was reluctance among members of the local group to go it alone. They were concerned there wouldn’t be enough community support for a locally-run service. They were also concerned about funding and the time required of volunteers to operate it.
“We wondered how it was going to work,” Moyer said.
The group decided to host a public meeting to inform residents of the plan to separate. It was held at the high school in late 1997 and attendance was overwhelming, both said. Buoyed by the support, it was decided to create a local group that would become known as Cancer Patient Services (CPS).
Donations started rolling in and the group, to function, found it necessary to incorporate CPS as a non-profit organization. They received assistance from Wellington North Township in preparing their application and the township, in the beginning, handled payments to compensate drivers for their trips. Essentially drivers are paid mileage.
The decision meant the society would stop funding at the end of 1997 and the local CPS group would have to be in place to continue the service.
“We decided we’d get our feet wet,” Moyer said. “We got our charitable status in 1998.”
As the program moved on, the group started looking at ways to raise funds to keep it operating. It was then the idea of a thrift shop came about.
“I voted against it,” Copeland said of the initial idea. “I had run a store and I knew how much work it was.”
A similar idea was being considered by the Louise Marshall Hospital Foundation, which was looking at fundraising ventures.
“We decided to go and do this and we heard the hospital foundation wanted to do this, but they didn’t have the funds so we helped out,” Moyer said.
The two groups teamed up and the planning work to open a store started.
“We looked around a long time,” Moyer said of finding a location. “We just didn’t jump right into it. (We had to remember) this is the people’s money. You just don’t go spending it.”
Paramount to their thinking about the store, was being able to fund the CPS service.
“The focus has always been the drivers,” Copeland said of the volunteers who are the backbone of the service.
Proceeds from the store operation complement other fundraising ventures the CPS puts on, including an annual luncheon with meals served at the local Legion and put together and delivered from the United Church, as well as an annual fashion show and pansy sale.
“We chose pansies because pansies grow in this area and they grow every year,” Copeland said.
The meal fundraiser saw some 280 meals delivered around town and pansy sales last year brought in about $9,000, according to Barb Gardin, a store day manager.
“We have good store managers and good volunteers,” Moyer said of the 85 volunteers who run the store. “We wouldn’t be where we are without the volunteers.”
The steady chime of the back door bell signals the delivery of donated items to the store.
Kitchen utensils, medical supplies such as canes and walkers, clothes, CDs, glassware, cookware, cups, lamps, books, pictures and picture frames, coffee makers and toys are among the items delivered daily to the store. Antiques of all sorts are also part of the regular deliveries. Seasonal items like Halloween costumes, Thanksgiving decorations and Christmas trees and decorations also find their way to the Thrift Shop.
More unique items find their way to the front display window decorated by volunteer Tallie McGovern, whose displays have twice been chosen as “best” in the fall fair competition of store displays.
Items on display in the store window are often part of regular silent auctions held at the store. People can see the items and place a silent bid on them with the hope of eventually winning with their item.
The shop has also received and sold a table-top hockey game, a popular toy in the 1960s with all the players and pieces included.
Gardin said employees will also look for particular items a customer may want.
All donated items are sorted, cleaned and put out on display – something Gardin is quick to point out.
A concern among store volunteers is theft of items delivered to the outside drop off at the rear of the store.
“We still have problems with people stealing,” Moyer said. “It’s seldom we come in that it hasn’t been sorted through. Theft is a real problem.”
The store also donates items to many charities and has made donations to Hurricane Katrina flood victims and Haiti earthquake victims. Habitat for Humanity has also received donations from the store, along with furnishing for a residence where visiting doctors stay.
It has proven a popular spot for shoppers, including John and Bep Klein, who took advantage of the five-CDs-for-$1 sale recently, picking up some 20 CDs.
John said he and his wife are regulars at the store and decided to pick up the CDs for a good price.
The $250,000 profit over the last three years is split with the hospital foundation.
The store is open weekdays from 10am to 5pm, Saturdays from 10am to 4pm and closed Sunday and Monday.
“It’s pretty well greased and oiled,” Moyer said of operation.
The Thrift Store also received recognition from the local Chamber of Commerce at its spring awards dinner.
“There’s a lot of people around here that have cancer,” Moyer said of the CPS service provided locally.
“We’re not just here to make money, we’re here to help.”
