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WestCare breaks ground on new thrift store site
By Justin Goble
A community institution will soon trade its donation location for a new home off Skyland Drive.
WestCare Health System officials and volunteers broke ground on the site of the new Harris Regional Hospital Auxiliary Thrift Store last Wednesday (Sept. 7).
The new site, off Mitchell Road, will be home to a one-story structure that is larger than the Nichols house next to the Sylva Post Office, which is the thrift store’s current location.
WestCare officials and volunteers broke ground for the new Harris Regional Hospital Auxiliary Thrift Store last Wednesday (Sept. 7). The store will move from its current downtown location beside the Sylva Post Office to a new site closer to the hospital off Mitchell Road. Officials have been looking for a new site for the 42-year-old store for the past few years due to a lack of space at the Nichols house. – Herald photo by Justin Goble
The thrift store was founded in 1962 to raise money for C.J. Harris Community Hospital (now Harris Regional Hospital). It moved to its present home in 1973 when the late W.C. Hennessee negotiated the purchase of the Nichols house.
Until then, the store moved from a vacant room in the Ritz Theatre, the basement of an old service station on Mill Street (which is now Moody Funeral Home’s parking lot), the foyer of Northwestern Bank (now First Citizen’s Bank), the American Legion and the old annex at the First Baptist Church.
According to Carol Douglas, volunteer coordinator for WestCare, the search for a new location has been a long process.
“The Nichols house is pretty overcrowded,” she said. “We have been looking into this for a couple of years. We were looking for property on a convenient location that we could afford.”
Douglas said that the current store will continue to operate and accept donations for a few more months before preparing for the move.
“Our plan is at some point to start taking donations at our new site,” she said. “We’re hoping that people will save some of their donations for the new site. We’ll stop taking donations at the Nichols house, then sell off our inventory. What we have left, we’ll try to distribute in some way. We probably won’t take much with us.”
With the new site, WestCare officials are hoping to expand their business days beyond Wednesdays and Saturdays. Douglas said that she hopes the new site will encourage volunteers of all ages to help out.
Helen Blue, a thrift store volunteer, said the volunteers and the community have deep ties to the old thrift store. However, she said the move was necessary.
“We didn’t want to leave our house,” she said. “We love our house. But we’ve outgrown it. We’ve all worked really hard. We’re going to move, and that will be fun. We’re going to have more space. It’s going to be warm in the winter, cool in the summer, and all on one floor.”
WestCare board member Phyllis Foxx told the volunteers present at the ground-breaking ceremony that she thought the new location was the perfect place for the thrift store.
“I think this is where you’re meant to be,” she said. “You’re closer to the hospital.”
WestCare CEO Mark Leonard took the opportunity to commend the Thrift Store volunteers, who he said do a lot to help out the hospital.
“This is a celebration of what is possible,” he said. “This is a celebration for the future. We’ve been able to convert unneeded household items into those that are needed at the hospital. There’s a tremendous amount of love and dedication in that. Because of you, we’ve been able to have top-of-the-line technology.”
Leonard said since 1991, the thrift store has raised more than $420,000 for Harris Regional, and their overall fund-raising totals top $1 million.
According to Douglas, the final site plan should be completed within the next few weeks. Excavation would begin shortly thereafter, she said. The steel needed to construct the new building is on order and should arrive in mid-October.
The new store is expected to open around the first of the year, Douglas said.
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