Dear Editor,
I am the manager at Hope for Children Thrift Store which has been operating for four years in downtown Langley. We have made our mark in the community seeing sales rise and receiving wonderful feedback from our customers. I love the cause, the work, the volunteers I work with and the great clientele.
But some days we arrive at the store to a disheartening sight. And so this needs to be said every now and then: We are not a dump!
When “donors” discard their unsaleable furniture and household goods, the dumping fee becomes our responsibility. You can imagine a couch fills up our dumpster very quickly and an extra pick up costs us. These fees don’t affect the bottom line of some big corporate office. They affect the bottom line of orphanages in Mexico and BC Children’s Hospital.
Our store operates on volunteer labour so that we can send more money to the causes we care about. Clean up like this takes time away from putting out quality items that people can actually buy.
When items are dropped off after-hours and left by our door overnight, they are no longer saleable by the time we get to them. They will have been picked over and destroyed. And the weather doesn’t do them any good either.
Please drop off your donations during business hours so they can receive the proper attention.
Some people think that the poor will be happy to receive broken and dirty furniture. Those people would be wrong. Even the poor are more discerning than that. Dispose of it responsibly.
To those who donate quality items, thank you. We appreciate your support. Together we are helping good things happen at home and abroad.
Fiona Jansen, Langley City