Bethany Village thrift shop plans anniversary celebration

When the complete fixtures of a dress shop were donated to Bethany Village in Anna, a “fund-raising store” with lofty goals was born in Union County.

Now celebrating its seventh year, Bethany Village’s thrift shop not only funds up to 45 percent of the family crisis resource center’s budget, but also continues to provide job training for homeless women.

In 2005, with their new transitional housing facility for homeless women and children filled to capacity, the nonprofit organization scrambled for revenue sources.

The thrift shop/training center was one idea that Bonnie Barnhart, who was then the executive director, pursued.

From Belleville to Cairo, from Cape Girardeau to Evansville, Ind., Barnhart and her assistant, Kathy Cotton, gathered statistics and visited shops.

“We heard repeatedly,” Cotton recalls, “that thrift shops have a very low profit margin and that even with donated merchandise, costs of staffing and facility can exceed income. And, of course, there wasn’t a dime to spend on set-up.”

Still, Barnhart and Cotton found themselves peering in the windows of a closed dress shop in Anna’s Bunny Bread storefronts.

Within a few hours they had a serendipitous meeting with the store’s former manager, and then with the owner, who was planning to sell its fixtures that day.

On the spot, Cotton wrote a check, and Barnhart negotiated a site rental agreement with Bunny Bread.

The Bethany Village board of directors quickly approved a three-month trial project.

It featured using the store as a job-training site for Transitions residents and staffing it with one paid employee and volunteers.

Under the banner, “Good Deals for a Good Cause,” the shop opened a few weeks later and became an immediate success.

When the store relocated to a 4,500-square-foot office building adjacent to the Transitions Apartments in 2001, another success story unfolded.

Executive director Wally King hired a resident of the Transitions Apartments, Lisa Mayes, as manager of the expanded store, Bethany Bazaar.

Working hard, Mays not only created a thriving shop, she also moved from homelessness to a home of her own.

“Our work here is more than recycling donations and giving customers a good shopping experience,” says Mayes.  

“Every sale provides hope for homeless women and children.”

Anniversary Celebration Set

Mayes invites the public to the store’s anniversary celebration, which is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 3.

The celebration will feature refreshments, customer appreciation drawings for $30 gift cards and 25 percent off eligible purchases.  

The store is located at 414 E. Davie St. in Anna. The store is near the East Davie Street entrance to the Anna City Park.