Hundreds of volunteers • Thousands of garments Hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to charities
Our super-green
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n April, we celebrate both Earth Day and Volunteer Month. It’s a perfect time to showcase Qathet’s environmental heroes: the volunteers receiving, sorting, repairing, and selling clothes and more at our downtown thrift stores.
qathet’s thrifting scene – at stores, online, and at yard sales – is perhaps our most significant collective re-use project. On its own, thrifting won’t solve climate change. But the values behind the thrifting movement are the keys to our survival.
Health Care Auxiliary
thrifting scene
Carol Skorey, Membership Chair and Advertising Chair How many volunteers do you have? Carol • We currently have 254 members, some are not returning since COVID-19 but we are also getting some new members. About how many volunteer hours go into your work each month?
Carol • In 2018-2019 we had 58,329 volunteer hours but in 2020 due to being closed so much we dropped to 35,139! Things are really picking up now, though, so it will be interesting to see how it goes. How much clothing gets donated to your store? Carol • Powell River is very generous with clothing donations, what we can’t sell goes to a company called Cann Amm and we receive a cheque from them according to weight. In 2020 we kept 95,076 pounds out of landfill . How much gets tossed as garbage?
Carol • Very little goes into the garbage as we recycle almost all of these items: clothing, purses, shoes, belts, hats and linens. Jewellery is remade into saleable pieces.
Apart from recycling, what good does your store do?
Carol • Our Economy shop donates every penny earned after expenses and it stays in Powell River and goes to health-related areas such as the Hospital, Evergreen ECU and Willingdon Creek, also Danielle’s Helping Hands Fund, Therapeutic Riding, Paddling for Life, Mental Health Daycare Unit, free TV and earbuds for the patients, Youth Volunteers Programme, and Texada Island Health Unit. We supply oncology bags and supplies, COVID relief food hampers to Tla’amin Nation, and much more. The list is long and does change from year to year depending on need. The bulk of the money goes to the Hospital ECU and Willingdon Creek. In 2020, even with all the closures and reduced hours, we were able to donate $273,975.75 to these various areas! Anything else you’d like to add?
Carol • One big problem we have is that there is nowhere to recycle books or magazines here anymore. We are hoping that our community or province comes up with a solution to keep these items out of the landfill.
What will you find at the Townsite Public Market?
VALUED VOLUNTEERS: More than 250 locals volunteer at the Health Care Auxiliary thrift store on Alberni. Here are five of them, clockwise from top left: Jude Kersey is steaming the sweater. Wendy Price and Leah Kulcheski are running the jewellery counter. Harry Bey sorts electronics. And Vicki McClennon is sorting clothes.
Art Fabric Masks Gifts Housewares Clothes Jewelry Groceries Climbing Bakery Children’s Clothing Toys Coffee & Treats Beauty Music & Art Classes ...and so much more!
townsitemarket.com
Powell River Living • April 2021 •
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