Every 2 weeks we pull books, cds, dvds, games and puzzles from the 3 Waukesha County St Vincent locations that have not sold within the past 2 months. Prior to our nonprofit pulling these items, they would have been tossed in the garbage. Since May 2023, we have saved and donated over 25,000 books to 22 charities/schools/libraries/nursing homes/etc. Until November 2023, the sorting, distribution and storage of books had been housed in our 2 car garage. But as we continued to grow and accept donations from those in our community, we realized we needed more space to store books that didn't have an immediate location to be donated to. We currently have a x temperature-controlled storage unit that we have quickly outgrown. We are looking for funds to help cover the costs of 2 storage units, which would total $400/month.
The storage units would not only house books until donation requests are received, but will also provide space to store materials for our other programming, which includes:
1. refinishing furniture for those leaving women's shelters, homelessness, prison, etc and moving to their new home. We give new life to old furniture pieces.
2. creating and distributing children craft bags for school art that include utilization of books, dvds/cds.
3. volunteering in nursing homes to provide craft materials and education.
4. making enrichment toys for animal shelters.
5. storage space for winter apparel to be donated in cold months.
6. storage of charity rummage sale items that benefit veterans.
7. shipping materials and space for shipping books through Operation Paperback (fulfilling book requests from troops currently serving).
8. and much more as our program base continues to grow!
