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Pro-life thrift store in danger of closing
By Rebecca Bostic, rbostic@catholicsun.org
May 15, 2008
Rosario Evangeliza has been shopping at the 536 Thrift Store in the Sunnyslope area all her life. Her parents bought clothing for her there when she was a child and she has done the same for her 1-year-old son.
“Me and my parents, we always come here for everything because it’s really cheap and some of the stuff is pretty new,” said Evangeliza, a Most Holy Trinity parishioner.
She believes the thrift store is an important part of the largely Hispanic community because “it’s really good here for them because they can find whatever they need for their kids.”
The 536 Thrift Store has been a longtime staple of the Sunnyslope area. It is also an integral part of the Life Choices Women’s Clinic — a pro-life clinic that helps mothers, who might otherwise have abortions, obtain low-cost health care and emotional support.
But, due to a lack of volunteers and revenue, the store is in danger of shutting down.
Sr. Margaret Cecelia Wagner, SNDdeN, has run the 536 Thrift Store for the more than 20 years it has been in business. She still works nearly every day of the week.
“Everybody knows her in the neighborhood. She is like a monument,” said Evelyn Soliz, the store manager.
Soliz, who works primarily as a medical assistant at the Life Choices Women’s Clinic, has witnessed the positive effect the thrift store has had on mothers considering abortion.
“When we have a mother who is abortion-minded, the first thing is, ‘Well I don’t even have anything for myself, or my other kids. What am I going to do with this baby?’” she said.
“And we say, ‘Well, we have a thrift store and why don’t you go and pick out whatever you need?’” Soliz said. “So that gives her a sense that maybe she can” have this child.
The donations from the thrift store are also a vital part of the clinic’s Learn to Earn program, where mothers and expectant mothers come to short classes that teach them life skills in exchange for points they redeem for thrift store items.
“Every class they attend lets them earn five points and they use the points at the clothing and diaper bank,” said Desiree Bagley, one of the Learn to Earn instructors. “They redeem their points for baby clothes, maternity clothes, books, toys or diapers.”
Alice Johnson has been volunteering at the 536 Thrift Store for more than five years. The St. Stephen Byzantine Catholic Church member stressed the thrift store’s support of the women’s clinic.
“I feel like I’m contributing something, giving something back for the blessings that I’ve had,” Johnson said of her volunteer experience. The thrift store is “something that we need because it supports the clinic and we have a lot of baby clothes.”
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