Haven House Opens Thrift Store

     This Saturday, the South Peninsula Haven House will open its new thrift store, something they have been planning to do for several years. 

     For more than 30 years, the South Peninsula Haven House has sought to provide support for victims and survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. Originally known as South Peninsula Women’s Services, according to Haven House executive director Jessica Lawmaster, the name was changed 7 years ago to reflect the gender-inclusiveness of its programs.

     Among these recent additions to the Haven House and its programs is the new thrift store, "Homer Thrift." Lawmaster stated that while the Haven House has wanted to create a thrift store for several years, they only recently started moving on it a few months ago.

     "With the feedback we were hearing from the community and some local support we've had ... we decided just a few months ago to move forward with it," said Lawmaster.

     When asked why the decision to open a thrift store was made, Lawmaster said that sometimes the amount of donations that the Haven House recieves has caused them to run out of the space they currently have, which meant that they would sometimes need to give away donations even if there was no immediate need for them.

     In addition to benefiting the Haven House financially, Homer Thrift will also provide an opportunity for its clients to have better access to anything they may need, as well as gain work experience and, according to Lawmaster, allow them to communicate more efficiently with other non-profits.

     Also helping matters was Wells Fargo’s decision to pledge $5,000 towards the efforts to build the thrift store, something that Lawmaster says they also challenged the community to match them on.

     Homer Thrift will open its doors this Saturday the 17th. Its hours of operation will be on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and starting in December, from 3 to 7 p.m. on Thursdays. The new store is located in the shopping center at East End Storage, store #11. For more information visit havenhousealaska.org.