PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – The holidays are quickly approaching and for one local animal shelter, the season means a busy time for their thrift store.
The Humane Society for Southwest Washington opens its annual holiday boutique inside its thrift store ReTails each November. This year, the organization collected hundreds of wreaths, ornaments, snowglobes and Santas.
Anne Menard, who is in charge of the holiday shop, showed all the items that ranged from wacky to very valuable. She told KOIN 6 News all of the proceeds from the holiday thrift store go to the shelter.
Humane Society for Southwest Washington
ReTails Director of Operations Jennifer Rylander explained all the work that goes into sorting the tremendous amount of donations.
“The staff and volunteers work hard to receive these Christmas donations, sort them out from the regular donations, get them priced, get them stored correctly… so that when we get closer to the holiday season we start pulling everything down, everything out.” Rylander said. “As you can see, there’s no shortage of items. These boxes are full of holiday stuff that will be used to restock that holiday boutique.”
This year, however, the Vancouver boutique actually received so many donations that they had to close down their donation trailer at the Humane Society. But, organizers said it is all good — because that just means there is plenty to sell.
