24 Jun The Many Ways Experienced Goods Contributes to Our Community
by Jennie Reichman
Sometimes it seems like almost everyone from Brattleboro and the surrounding towns shops at Experienced Goods. On any given day, a broad cross section of people from our community donate and purchase items from our shelves and racks and linger in the store to chat with friends or make new social connections. Yes, we are a thrift store and a treasure trove of delightful objects, but we are also a kind of center point around which much of the community revolves. Aside from the fact that the recycling nature of our store benefits our towns and environment, Experienced Goods contributes significantly to the community in ways that many of our customers and donors may not be aware of.
Volunteers are the backbone of the work we do, and many of our volunteers come to us through state and local programs designed to assist people with challenges they are facing in their lives. Reach Up and Vermont Associates are two state run programs that foster skill development for economic independence. Volunteers come to us seeking work training, perhaps after an extended absence from the work force or other life altering event. Tapestry is another organization that gives women the opportunity to learn work skills and re-integrate into our community. Brattleboro Union High School also requires students to perform several hours of community service before graduating, and we particularly enjoy the fresh energy these students bring to the store when they volunteer.
We have also partnered with Groundworks Collaborative and the Women’s Freedom Center to create voucher programs that allow individuals or families to obtain clothing when in need. In the winter, Coats for Kids works with us through a voucher program to make sure all of our community’s children are warm and dry through the coldest months.
When unusable items are donated to us, we try to recycle them as much as possible, and this process brings us into contact with several organizations and individuals who in turn do their own good work in the community. Clothing and other textiles are picked up weekly by The Salvation Army; they process these textiles either into their stores or pass them on to other recycling programs. Metal and electronic items are taken away weekly by a delightful gentleman we have christened “Metal Man”; he is our very own super hero, as we would be buried in wires and cookie sheets without him. Florist’s vases are donated to Taylor For Flowers, who in exchange bring us beautiful floral arrangements to brighten our sales desk. Unsellable blue jeans and other denim is taken away by a woman who runs a home-based business making quilts from these fabrics. When kitchen knives are donated to us, we stock pile them for a volunteer who is learning how to sharpen cutlery; he brings them back sharp and ready for sale.
And then there are those pesky unsellable T-shirts. One day a creative customer came to us and offered to make shopping bags out of them! This happened just as we were strategizing how to cope with the elimination of single use plastic shopping bags from local grocery stores. These used plastic bags are often donated to us and we use them as bags for customers’ purchases. What would we do when they were no longer available? With the brilliant zip-zip of a couple of cuts and seams, this innovative volunteer takes away piles of t-shirts and brings them back as durable, one of a kind shopping bags. We are in awe of her.
And books? We get Soooo many books. Our lovely friend Raymond from Roundabout Books in Greenfield comes by every couple of weeks and hauls away what we cannot use or sell. He pays us a bulk rate for them and then resells some of them in his store and recycles the rest. We have a connection to New England Youth Theater as well; they give us free advertising in their programs in exchange for costumes and props for performances.
As anyone who shops at Experienced Goods knows, the store is an ever-changing panorama of color, texture, design and innovation. Nothing is ever the same day to day, which is what makes this place so much fun. We recently decided to take some of that visual excitement outside and, thanks to Special Projects Manager Gemma Champoli and her green-thumbed team of volunteers, we are enjoying a newly landscaped and planted garden next to our side entryway. As the seasons pass and you watch this garden grow lush and healthy, take some of that hopeful energy with you into the community and the world. May it inspire you the way we are inspired by all of you and by this very special place where we live.