BELLE FOURCHE—A place that evokes goodness by taking care of others and providing for those in need could aptly be named an Angel Store. That is, in fact, the name chosen by the Belle Fourche Global Methodist Church for their free thrift store.
The Angel Store provides free clothes for anybody in need. The store is only successful because of the community’s generosity. Everything in the store is there via donations. “People just know to donate. A while back we needed donations and so we put on Facebook that we needed donations and we just got blasted! The community is very good about helping,” explained Monica Albrecht, team leader. “Even tonight, we’ve taken in a lot of donations that we didn’t even ask for—they just bring stuff!”
There is something for everybody! The inventory includes shoes, coats, hats, winter gear, tops, pants and is in a variety of sizes. “Newborn baby all the way through to XXXL for women and men,” explained Albrecht. “We keep a lot of jeans—because the men like their work jeans—we just try to really round it out and carry a little bit of something for everyone!”
The store is available to help anybody in need. It stays pretty busy and helps quite a few neighbors in the community. “Tonight we’ve had 43 people so far. But when they’re getting ready for school is when we get up to 60 people, but that isn’t normal. We usually get between 35 to 60 people stopping by,” said Albrecht.
Five volunteers keep the Angel Store running smoothly. They often come in on Wednesday mornings to get everything prepared for the store opening. It is open once a month on the third Friday from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. The ladies involved are Deb Wattier, Maureen Beals, Julia Bevier, Linda Stanton, and Monica Albrecht. Two of the five do not attend the Global Methodist Church. “Julia and Linda don’t go to our church, but they still want to help—they’re very dedicated—everybody’s dedicated to the mission,” said Albrecht.
The ladies take pride in their work. “We’re very fussy! We don’t keep stuff that is torn, stained, anything like that. We like to make sure that if they take it home, they can wear it and not have to run it through the laundry,” said Albrecht. “I refuse to have the racks crammed full too, because if people can’t find things, they can’t get them out. So I’d like to keep the racks so that there’s a little room to play with.”
Everybody is welcome to use the Angel Store. Everything in the store is free. “Everybody and anybody! And they don’t have to be in need, it’s for everybody,” shared Albrecht. “I’d like to stress to people that they can take whatever they want and as much as they want. It’s a very good mission and my girls work really hard!”
Come in when the Angel Store is open and grab a bag, fill it! “If you need more bags, we’ll get you more bags,” said Albrecht.
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