Bradford’s faithful thrifters may be happy to hear the good word about what's coming to town.
Based on popular demand, the Newmarket branch of the Mission Thrift Store is expanding to Bradford with a drop-off centre at 121 Bridge St., set to begin accepting donations on Nov. 4.
The centre is planned to be open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Friday and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m on Saturdays and accept all housewares, sundries, clothing, and small furniture. Large items will still need to be brought to the Newmarket store for the time being.
Plenty of their donors are already from Bradford, and looking for a way to continue their contributions without driving out of town, according to Liz Croft, manager of the Newmarket location.
“We want to make it more accessible,” she said. “It helps the mission as well as helping the environment, saving money and giving back to the community.”
The Bradford location is also set to feature a small sales section to help demonstrate the experience of Mission Thrift.
“When you walk through our Mission Thrift Store, you get a feeling: ‘I want to be here, I want to donate here, I love their mission,’” Croft said.
If that section performs well enough, Croft suspects it could be expanded to something more in future.
“We want to give back to Bradford as well,” she said.
In the five years she’s been working with the store, she said it’s gone from having three community partners to 25, including the local learning centre, outreach program, Salvation Army and the Women’s Centre of York Region.
Now, they’re looking for partnerships as well as volunteers in Bradford too.
“They can also be a part of our mission and our growth,” Croft said.
While customers and donors help support faith initiatives worldwide, including adult literacy and children’s ministry programs, Croft said it was the volunteers that most drew her to the store.
“It was their compassion and their commitment that they wanted to be part of something bigger,” she said.
Mission Thrift Store is a non-profit, volunteer-based, non-denominational Christian organization with 51 stores across Canada. Their proceeds support the registered charity Bible League Canada, which provides international programs in more than 40 countries around the world.
More information is available on their website and they can be reached by phone 289-803-3044, email [email protected] or by following missionthriftstorenewmarket on Facebook and Instagram.
