by Stephen Dafoe
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Morinville and area residents will soon benefit from a second thrift shop in town, opening Feb. 1 in the former Body Shop Fitness Centre location.
Fusion Canada is behind the 4,000 square foot store, focusing primarily on clothing. The shop will also have a selection of household goods and nicknacks.
Jocelyn Hansen, the manager of Fusion Thrift Shoppe, is also the executive director of Fusion 316 Incorporated, the charitable organization behind the store.
Hansen said Fusion was started in Australia 60 years ago and is now in 20 or more countries, including Canada, for about 20 years.
“We started with youth work in West Edmonton around the Britannia Youngstown area, working with the police, the schools, the community leagues, churches, other organizations to find creative ways to support high-risk youth and families in that part of town,” Hansen said.
Hansen explained that the charity running the new thrift store has six objects or areas of ministry and charitable work and that proceeds from the store will go to those areas.
“There’s lots of things that the money can go to do,” she said, noting that they will be working with both the Jessica Martel Memorial Foundation’s Jessie’s House, Sturgeon Victim Services, the Town of Morinville, and churches to serve the community.
“Our partnership with Jessie’s House will be all about setting up the women and men once they leave Jessie’s House, and they need a little kickstart,” she explained. “We would love to be part of that.”
The shop is just in the beginning stages of talking with Sturgeon Victim Services to assist them with the people they serve.
However, the shop is open to help serve anyone in the community who wishes to shop there.
“The vision of the store is to be offering affordable clothing, in partnership with Midstream, to serve the community because there is no clothing store in Morinville, and we wanted to work alongside Midstream to offer that service to people,” Hansen said.
Hansen said they are committed to having 90 per cent of the store’s inventory be clothing. While household goods and nicknacks will be accepted and sold, the focus will be clothing.
“That [clothing] was a need in the community and also being open five days a week,” Hansen said, noting the store will be open Tuesday through Saturday.
Fusion Thrift Shoppe takes donations during all business hours. “We have just decided that rather than stockpiling things or having a huge amount brought between two and four on a certain day, that we would rather just accept donations during all business hours,” Hansen said.
Volunteer opportunities are also available at the store. Those wishing to find out more or apply can visit the store in person.
Fusion is holding its ribbon-cutting on Feb. 1 at 1 p.m. Business hours will be 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. They are open Thursdays from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m., and on Saturdays from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.
Fuson Thrift Shoppe also has a Facebook page where you can follow their activities.
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Looking forward to going there.