Quarantine Clean Out

These last few months of quarantine have forced us to spend time inside. A lot of time inside. And while families were playing board games, cooking more, having Zoom meetings, and putting countless hours on the couch binge-watching more hours of Tiger King than any of us care to admit, another activity we know happened…cleaning.

We received messages from so many customers who had been cleaning out closets, basements, attics, well, basically any corner of the house because they had so much time on their hands.

“It’s liberating!”

“I forgot I even had some of this stuff.”

“I’ve wanted to clean out these spaces for such a long time!”

These were the types of messages we heard daily. You weren’t kidding! When the state’s mandate was lifted and we were able to open our “no-touch” donation drive-up sites, it was nothing short of an avalanche of treasure at each one. And, the donations are still coming in full force every day. No one in the company can remember a time when we’ve seen this many donations. But, please don’t stop!

Why? These donations allow us to do something pretty special. They are sold in our retail stores (which are all open by the way.) Those sales fund the mission services we provide in the greater Cleveland and East Central Ohio regions. What kind of mission services? Compass is a rape crisis program that helps survivors of sexual assault. The Literacy Services program assists adults in overcoming reading and math obstacles. Our employment skills programs includes two key areas: Pre-employment Training and Job Placement Services and are available to any job seeker with a barrier to employment.

These are just a few of the 26 programs we offer. Each one designed to help people overcome different barriers in their lives to get good jobs, become self-sufficient and strengthen families and communities.

What next? Keep cleaning. Keep organizing. Keep donating. And now that our retail stores are open, come shop with us knowing your purchases are helping someone right here in your community.