A Community Helping Hands volunteer is pictured in the organization’s Christmas Room. Community Helping Hands is looking for donations of men’s items and volunteers to help service increasing use this winter. P-J file photo by Owen Reed

For more than 20 years, Community Helping Hands has helped to provide for many in the area that are in need of clothing.

While the county is plentiful in organizations focusing on food assistance, CHH remains one of the few groups leading the county initiative to help ensure that people are clothed. This winter season, the organization is once again pushing to make sure that they will be able to help local people meet their needs despite the quicker depletion that the organization sees as a result.

Shawn Whitmer, Community Helping Hands executive director, said the organization is dedicated to helping people to meet their basic needs. Many people come to the organization initially through referrals from other agencies in the area, said Whitmer. Whitmer stated that when a referral is received, CHH will set up an appointment with the individual to gauge household size and what that person’s specific needs are. Additionally, Whitmer stated that the wintertime brings many people into the organization that are homeless and without boots, jackets, and other essentials. While many homeless people come in without referrals, Whitmer stated that the organization still assists these people through the Emergency Voucher program. This program typically gives a small allowance to the person to use in the thrift shop room, usually about $15. So far, since July, Whitmer stated that the organization has handed out about 300 of these vouchers.

“We just try to find them exactly what they need to get them on their way, until they can get an appointment to come back and get some more credits for their vouchers,” said Whitmer.

Whitmer mentioned that this large amount of reliance on the organization to provide clothing to so many people has really taken a toll on the organization’s supplies. The emergency voucher program means the number of jackets, coats, hats, scarves, gloves,boots, etc. that the organization has on hand decreases quickly. Whitmer noted that men’s clothing has been particularly depleted. This is because the organization just does not see as much men’s clothing come through in the first place in comparison to women’ clothing, according to Whitmer.

Such a high level of reliance on the organization has caused the rise of other challenges too, Whitmer noted. Due to the high number of donations that the organization must receive to keep up with this demand, hours of volunteer work is required to sort and clean all of the items. On top of this, Whitmer noted that volunteers spend a large amount of time helping people shop and helping people to determine what items they are in need of. Witmer noted that CHH is currently seeking anyone that is willing to provide some volunteer time to the organization. Additionally, any monetary or clothing donations to the organization are always appreciated, said Whitmer. With the Gateway Center being such a large, and financially demanding building, there are very high costs of operations that the organization must still manage. While Whitmer noted that the group partners with the St. Susan Center and the Mental Health Association since they are also in the building, these organizations struggle to bear the high costs of the building enough already. Due to this, it is not possible to increase the buildings rent, and therefore the additional costs must be taken on by CHH largely alone. Any sort of donations to the organization go directly to helping to cover the increasingly high insurance costs, and other general utilities and maintenance.

“We have a lot of stuff that still has tags on it coming from people who received an item and didn’t return it, so they donated it to us,” said Whitmer. “So anybody and everybody can shop down here, and it’s highly encouraged. Any dollar spent in the thrift store helps us benefit the community with clothing, and keep the lights on.”

CHH has five different rooms currently, all of which are themed around the category that the vast number of items in the room fit into. The main clothing room is called the depot, which is filled with all kinds of donated clothes. Next is the Christmas room, which is nearly done for the season. This room holds hundreds of different Christmas decorations and items. Whitmer noted that, with the winter season nearing an end, many of the Christmas room items are, or will soon be, seeing huge sales. The closet is the next room in the shop, focusing on new clothing which often still has the tag on it. The showroom is the next, containing furniture, paintings, and large items in general. Lastly is the pickers place room, which is a jumble of all sorts of uncategorized donations.

The Community Helping Hands thrift shop is open Wednesday through Friday from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. The organization is located inside of the Gateway Center at 31 Water Street. For any further information contact 716-487-1488.