“All pro-life organizations should have a thrift shop,” insists Kathy Bachman, who has run the Vernon Pro-Life Thrift Shop in Vernon, B.C., a city of 75,000. for the past six years. It’s an easy way to make big bucks. “Pro-lifers and pro-choicers—they all support us.”
Kathy says that the Vernon Thrift Shop has been in existence for more than sixteen years.
“We’ve got a good location,” said Kathy. “We’re close to downtown, near a bus stop and near to offices. We have a clean store and we keep the premises up and well-stocked. We have 30 women volunteer—no paid staff. All of our clothes are donated.
“We’re lucky—the rent is reasonable. It’s tough economic times that make thrift stores very popular. And then there are always your bargain hunters.”
“We have four thrift shops here in Vernon and they’re all flourishing. We get along famously. One is operated by the Salvation Army and another by the Upper Room Mission which finances a soup kitchen they run for the poor. The other thrift shop is run by a mental health organization.”
To hear Kathy Bachman talk—running a pro-life thrift shop is a piece of cake—if you’re willing to listen to a few brief suggestions. Okay – you’ve secured a clean vacant store in a good location—now what? Kathy suggests going around to a store that’s going out of business and asking them if you can have their display shelving for a good cause. And ask them, she suggests, if they could throw in the cash register as well. It’s amazing what you get for free by just asking, she says.
A pro-life thrift shop is worthwhile, she insists, because it helps the pro-life movement get on solid financial ground. It also serves to advertise and publicize the pro-life movement by doing something useful for the community, Kathy says.
Kathy says it can be done—and who is going to argue with success?
