By The Post

An Item’s Journey of Usefulness

Nov 6, 2019 | 3:03 AM

Sharing a place to belong between volunteers and staff, The Post Thrift Store has proudly remained a fixture in the Medicine Hat Community since 1979. With the support of the community, The Post has sustained itself for 40 years. What began as a small, yet significant, endeavour has grown into well-established family working to support those who struggle with mental health.

Having the opportunity to work side by side with volunteers and staff whose knowledge crosses several generations has proven to be an invaluable entity within The Post family. With each member of The Post taking ownership of their perspective area of expertise, we have created the ability to provide hands-on mentorship to new volunteers and staff members. On a typical day, you will find volunteers and staff working side by side with members of JobCorp, BIRS (Brain Injury Relearning Services), REDI and SAAMIS Immigrations. These participants come to The Post for a variety of reasons such as learning new job skills, improve language speaking skills, opportunity to work with others in a supportive work environment and some opt to work with us to be able to interact socially on a daily basis. This wealth of comradery has allowed us to bridge the lines of communication between long term members of the community and upcoming leaders.

Curious about what happens to your donations once you leave them at The Post? We understand the time and effort it takes to declutter your home, and make the decision of what must go. Once items are brought to The Post, their journey of usefulness begins again. Each donated item is respectfully sorted, and taking in account its condition, it is then cleaned and placed with the store for sale. Donations that are unable to be sold are responsibly redistributed or recycled. All proceeds generated from these sales are put back into the community through resource programs offered by the Canadian Mental Health Association.

Aside from sorting and pricing donations, there is an abundance of other tasks that volunteers and staff do on a typical day. Our Team Leads put extra effort into investigating items that appear to be antique or potentially of great value to be placed into our Silent Auction that runs monthly, ending at noon on the last Friday of each month. These items are verified, cleaned and placed aside to be bid on by enthusiasts. The bidding system is easy, simply place bids in increments of $5 by asking a staff member for our “Auction Book”.

Given the variety of items we receive at any given time, you will often see our team moving displays and shelving to accommodate items being placed on the floor for sale. With our monthly colour tag rotation, you will see us placing multiple items across all departments on sale for 50% off each month. Many of our regular customers enjoy these sales as it is relatively easy to learn what colour may go on sale next, or find out by asking a member of the team who are always happy to assist. Other volunteers and staff may be observed cleaning to ensure proper upkeep and safe walkways throughout the store.

IN THE COMMUNITY

'Compassionate Friends' offer peer support for bereaved in Medicine Hat

5m ago

POSTAL STRIKE

Donations to Medicine Hat non-profits drop over Canada Post strike

13m ago

IN THE COMMUNITY

Medicine Hat's Adopt-A-Rink program still seeking volunteers

8h ago

In short, it may surprise our supporters to learn how many small tasks go into presenting their generous donations to the community. The Post encourages anyone to stop in and see us Monday-Friday between 10am-3pm, to take a tour of our store to see the process of how donations are sorted and priced first hand. If you have an interest to join our team; it is a great opportunity to talk about what you have to offer The Post, and what you will get out of the experience in turn.

As we cross the threshold of our 40^th Anniversary, The Post Thrift Store extends its greatest appreciation to the community for its continued support and extends an open invitation to anyone who wishes to take their support a step further by volunteering with us!

Rebecca Riddle is the Store Manager at The Post Thrift Store for the Canadian Mental Health Association and can be reached at 403-527-0326. To find out more about volunteering visit www.thepostonline.ca or check out www.cmha-aser.ca to learn more about CMHA Programs and Events.