Toward the end of Holland Street East, just at the edge of town sits re-Source Thrift Shop, a volunteer run thrift store filled with unique, one-of-a-kind, second hand treasures.
re-Source has other locations throughout the Greater Toronto Area as well, including Barrie, Hamilton and Peterborough, but each run independently from one another.
All staff are volunteers, with all items donated from the public and profits of the store going to Christian based schools as well as charities in the community.
The Bradford location is made up of five volunteer board members, including Rachel Bokma who has been helping out at the store since its opening in June 2015.
“We manage the store as a group,” she explained.
Bokma lives in Bradford with her husband and four children. She says she enjoys volunteering at the store and helping others, both customers and the families who benefit from their donations.
“Being able to support that and the community, the store is kind of like its own little community too,” she explained.
There are about 40-50 volunteers who come in each week who volunteer their time working at the store–sorting through donations, pricing items, organizing items on the floor, helping customers and working on cash.
Most volunteers will do a four hour shift once a week.
Profits from the Bradford store goes predominantly to King Christian School on Bathurst Street in the Holland Marsh for a bursary program so parents who can’t afford to send their kids to Christian school are able to apply.
Ten percent of their profits go toward other local organizations in town like the Helping Hand Food Bank, A Hand Up Clothing Room and Blue Door Shelters.
Items that they are not able to sell are collected and put aside for the Kidney Foundation of Canada who comes and picks them up from the shop regularly.
The store participated in the last Curbside Treasure Hunt event back in June, allowing them to make room in the store by getting rid of old chairs and furniture that wasn’t moving.
They said they plan to participate in this weekend’s second scheduled treasure hunt as well.
“Donations just keep pouring in,” said Bokma. The store receives donations throughout the week and are kept piled in the back room.
The backroom is where staff sifts through all the donations, categorizes them, prices them and and sets them up to go out onto the floor.
Thursday nights are sorting nights, where volunteers come in and organize the piles of donations.
“We even have a couple volunteers who will take stuff home to wash,” explained Bokma. Sometimes the items are in great condition but in need of a good scrub.
Customer-wise, Bokma said they are fairly steady. The location sees a lot of foot traffic as well as people coming by car, as there are many parking spaces available in the shop plaza.
There is a lot of planning and organization involved in managing the store, their bags of donations alone can take days to sort through. Typically there are about three to five volunteers working at a time depending on how busy it is.
The store is packed with all types of items including, clothing, books, housewares, electronics and furniture.
"It's cool to see when you price something and a customer buys it right away," said Bokma. She said there are customers who come in daily who like to get first dibs on new items put out on the floor.
She says the most popular selling items are ladies clothing.
“Women buy a lot of clothes,” she laughed.
A lot of the volunteers at the store are affiliated with King Christian School, but is not a requirement to join the team.
“We love it,” said volunteer Annettee Holtrop who works at the store every Tuesday and Friday. Holtrop started volunteering about a year and a half ago, along with her daughter Tammy.
“I retired, so I thought, I need to do something else. And to do something worthwhile at the same time, and I have lovely people to work with both days, so I look forward to it.”
Anyone is welcome to apply to be a volunteer. All applications are reviewed by the board of directors.
“It needs to be a good fit for them and for us,” explained Bokma.
Both Holtrop and Bokma say it's amazing the amount of items that come through on a daily basis and makes them happy to give people’s old treasures a new life, saving items from the dumpster.
“At least you’re passing it on,” said Bokma.
Donations are accepted at the store between Tuesday-Friday, and can be dropped off at the back doors or directly inside the shop.
re-Source Thrift Shop Bradford is open six days a week and can be reached by phone at 905-551-660 or on their website here .They also have a Facebook page here, and can be found on Instagram @resourcethriftshop.
