Scenes from a thrift store

Several of our folks have spent at least some part of every day this week working at the thrift store, unpacking boxes, sorting items, putting clothes on the racks, creating displays, discovering interesting finds, and getting to know the delightful Miss Audrey, manager of the thrift store.

That sinking feeling

"Now maybe if I just unscrew THIS. . ."

you get when you're volunteering at the thrift store and there's something on your contact lens and you go to rinse it off and it falls into the sink and gets wedged between the edge of the drain and the ceramic basin and your sister tries to pull the lens out with her fingernails and it gets pushed further down so that it's no longer visible and you don't have backup lenses with you and you know that you have just ruined the rest of the week.

Cathy and Sugar Doll, viewing the world with a little more clarity

But, then — glory hallelujah, the very resourceful and unflappable Sugar Doll, an employee at the thrift shop, shows up: "I don't know a whole lot about plumbing, but I think we can just take this thing apart. . ."

We could and we did. Found the lens. Cathy washed it off, popped it back into her eye, and gratefully went back to work unpacking boxes.

We really did try to put it back together — Honest, Robert!

PS Cary Christian Center Work Project Manager Robert Jackson didn't even wince when we told him we had, um, accidentally disabled the sink.

The theme for the week?

"Just make it look cute!"

Today saw several of us (both the Wittenberg team and the Northwestern College group) helping out at the Treasure Chest, the thrift store in Rolling Fork run by the Cary Christian Center.

In addition to unloading the truck which brought in boxes and boxes of donations of to be sold in the store, we were pretty much given free rein in organizing and decorating sections of the store — including the front window. The store manager, Audrey, found herself saying again and again, "That sounds great! However you want to do it. Just make it look cute!"

A phrase which we have since found to be very handy while painting houses or fixing a meal to share with our Northwestern College counterparts. . .

Photos (from top): A few of the volunteers in the Treasure Chest window; Cathy helps unload the truck; Tori and Kirstie remove water collected from a recent heavy rainfall; Monday's thrift store team poses with store manager Audrey (far right)