St. Vincent de Paul store in La Pine reopens
Store staff say they received more monetary donations this year
LA PINE, Ore. (KTVZ) -- While some stores are still waiting for the governor’s order to fully return to business, the St. Vincent de Paul thrift store in La Pine reopened its doors Monday.
Heather Loomis, the store manager, told NewsChannel 21 the decision to reopen came after she learned the St. Vincent de Paul thrift store in Eugene opened on April 23. After a discussion with the La Pine store’s general manager, they both decided to schedule their store’s reopening for Monday.
“I’ve had a lot of customers contact me on Facebook and say, ‘Why aren’t you guys open? You’re essential -- we need things!’” Loomis said. “I’m like, ‘We were told by the governor we needed to close down.’”
St. Vincent de Paul of La Pine depends on donations of clothing, household items and furniture, which are then sorted and placed for sale in the thrift stores.
Shirley Griffith, the La Pine location’s bookkeeper, said 100 percent of the monetary donations go to the food bank and social services. She said in 2019, St. Vincent de Paul in La Pine received $26,000. The previous year, she said, they received about $30,000.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Griffith said their monetary donations nearly doubled. Since January, she said they received a total of nearly $32,000. And that includes $7,000 received between March and mid-May, while their thrift store was closed due to the pandemic.
Loomis said regular customers can expect to see changes when they come back to the store.
“We went in and made sure the store was very clean, enforced social distancing, we’ve marked the floors, we did everything the paperwork told us to do,” Loomis said.
The store has added red tape markings on the floor to encourage one-way traffic flow, and put up signs reminding people to stay at least 6 feet apart.
“Our customers have come in saying, ‘Thank God you’re open, you are very essential!’” Loomis said. “That makes us feel good.”
She said she deems St. Vincent de Paul an essential business because their proceeds go toward helping people in need through their food bank and social services.
She said even with all of the changes COVID-19 has brought to society, the support of the community has not changed a bit.
