Recovered Treasures - A Community Jewel

 

 

While on vacation visiting my Peruvian family in Cary, North Carolina  I was invited to Recovered Treasures, a thrift store managed by my cousin Alicia.  Having anticipated spending our time in Cary together lunching, shopping and chatting, I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical about spending the whole day working in a thrift shop.   What a surprise awaited me.

My first impression of Recovered Treasures  was how clean and organized it was. A living room area dominated the entryway complete with sofas, lamps, rugs and coffee tables, all with price tags attached. As I continued looking around I saw shelves neatly arranged with every imaginable home item. A person could literally equip an entire home with the things on display and then fill their closets with the clothes on the racks.

 

My cousin Alicia chimed in, “You guys ready to work?”

“Sure”, I said as I donned my gloves and then dove into the dozens of sacks and boxes dropped off by the delivery truck the prior day. We sorted, we hung, we organized; the never-ending pile became a challenge to get through and each of us did our part. For hours we hardly looked up, determined to make a dent in the piles.

 

 

Curious about the organization behind the thrift shop, I asked a lot of questions and my cousin Alicia directed me to Healing Transitions’ website https://healing-transitions.org. I spent the next hour reading about their mission of helping those who are addicted to drugs and alcohol. I came away in awe. This non-profit organization is driven to help individuals find recovery, stay in recovery and have the best quality of life in recovery. The incredible part is that there’s no cost to those who get accepted into the program. They’ve helped many homeless, lost individuals find their way back to a normal life. The thrift store, Recovered Treasures, helps this mission in two ways. It funnels the profits to the parent organization, and it allows recovering families to purchase items for their homes at a much lower cost. Their results are impressive:

 

 

Reading the heartfelt stories on their website, the benefit of what Healing Transitions does became clear. Working in the thrift shop, however, I discovered a hidden benefit that only reveals itself to one who spends time there. As I looked around, I saw Alicia empathetically listening to a customer who had a “friend” that was in trouble with alcohol and drugs and she was looking for a way to help him. Alicia gave her a brochure and directed her to Healing Transitions. I also saw elderly people sitting on the sofas chatting with others who, like them, had come in to escape the heat and find company to ease their loneliness.

 

Working alongside my family, I met Emily.  Emily is a dental hygiene student whose school requires community service as part of the curriculum. As Emily and I sorted, folded and hung clothes side by side, we got to know each other. She explained she was familiar with the thrift shop through her boyfriend, who was a silver chipper. “A silver chipper?” I asked, “What's that?” She went on to explain that he had gone through the Healing Transitions program years ago and it transformed his life. As a result, when it was time for her to dedicate her time to a worthy cause, she chose the thrift store since it supported Healing Transitions.

 

Everyone who entered the store was greeting with a warm smile and hug from Alicia, who commands this tight, but very compassionate environment. She treated all her customers like extended family.  The sense of community was undeniable.

For me, it was another life lesson learned. How many of these thrift shops have I passed over the years perhaps with some arrogance, thinking it a place I would never frequent? How have I not realized the value of such a place? I was brought to tears in the afternoon as I opened a box marked with a label, “McMillan Room 204”. As I opened it and saw the vintage baby clothes, now faded and stained with time, I tried to imagine what mother/grandmother might have been saving them for a child that never got them? I realized that many of these “hidden treasures” have their own story to tell, if only they could talk.

 

Thank you Alicia, for sharing your world with me. My eyes have been opened and I will never pass another thrift shop without realizing the good they do. My hat’s off to programs like Healing Transitions who take the homeless and the seemingly hopeless and help them find their way. They are living proof that everyone deserves a second or as many chances as it takes to transition them out of a very difficult situation. Healing Transitions, you have a new supporter.

 

 

Lorraine Grubbs is an author, speaker and leadership development consultant that works with companies to create Happy Workplaces. To learn more about what she does, go to www.lorrainegrubbs.com and follow us on FB: https://www.facebook.com/lorrainegrubbsinspiringpeople/