First and Second Thrift Store helps community

Community members happily gathered at the Cook County Senior Center on a snowy winter day, February 8, for a “payout party” with the First and Second Thrift Store.

Senior Center and Cook County Council on Aging Director Bev Green thanked all of the volunteers in attendance and announced that for 2016 a total of $60,159.69 would be distributed to 33 nonprofit organizations. Checks ranged from $27.50 to $12,402 to organizations such as area churches, schools, youth groups, the Salvation Army, the Violence Prevention Center and more.

The funds are earned by community volunteers who help out at First and Second. Volunteers sort donations, stock the shelves, arrange displays, staff the register and more. Volunteers assign the hours they work to a community nonprofit, which then receives their earnings.

Since the store was opened in 2007, it has returned $431,167.58 to community nonprofits.

For more information about First and Second Thrift Store, call the Cook County Senior Center at 218-387-2660 or visit the store in the Cobblestone Building (across Highway 61 from Dairy Queen).