Community Champion: Ginger Hall and Gleaners’ House

It’s time to recognize a Community Champion, an honor given to people making a positive impact in the community, in partnership with Leaders Credit Union.

Today we introduce you to a group of volunteers helping to give back to their community by giving old items a new life.

Gleaners’ House Thrift Store is an outreach ministry of First Methodist Church in the city of Henderson. The store is completely volunteer run and the proceeds go right back into the community.

“The church ladies that started this has since then grown and it’s gotten to be such a large business and it’s not small anymore,” said Ginger Hall, director of Gleaners’ House.

The store carries various items at discounted prices, and a food pantry is available! People are able to shop and donate unwanted items.

“We’ve got clothes for men, women, and children, as well as shoes. We’ve got lamps and other small appliances. We’ve got a lot of knick-knacks,” said Colette Carrabba, store manager of Gleaners’ House.

They accept just about anything, and only ask that the items be clean and serviceable.

“Most of our larger furniture is stored in the back sheds. That we post up on our facebook page to let customers know that we have them,” explained Carrabba.

All the money raised through the thrift store helps Chester county residents.

“The customers get excited too; to see something new that’s coming out on the floor,” said Carrabba.

“And a lot of them are very, very happy with what we do with the money, that it goes back into the county and that the people benefit from it. It’s not just going nowhere, but it’s going in a good place,” said Hall.

“We help a lot of people within Chester County and different areas of needs. And we also have paid for people with utilities. We help them with their lights, with their food, whatever is necessary that we can help them with,” said Hall.

The thrift store also helps local Head Starts by donating children’s books, and even loans out certain items to residents free of charge.

“We’ve got some medical items such as walkers and toilet chairs, shower chairs, wheelchairs. And we loan them out to people who need them and just ask that they bring them back clean so that we can loan them out to somebody else,” said Carrabba.

The volunteers at Gleaners’ House say giving back through this mission is important to them.

“We are here three days a week for business. We’re here Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 10 to 2. And our volunteers are here every day except Sundays, working to process the donations that come in, get them cleaned if they need to be cleaned, get them priced, get them out on the floor,” said Carrabba.

“And I felt like I was called to do this. I feel like God has led me here to do this mission for our community,” said Carrabba.

If you want to donate or volunteer with Gleaners’ House they are located at 121 North Washington Avenue in Henderson.

If you know someone doing good in their community, you can nominate them for the Community Champion award by clicking here.

For more local news, click here.