by

Elsie Walker

A display in its three paneled window welcomes fall and asks for prayers for the Ukraine and peace.  The display reflects the creativity of the volunteers and the care given to the shop.   This is the Gleaners Thrift Shop of the Butler United Methodist Church.  Here shoppers can find a variety of items from clothing to small appliances at affordable prices while the monies received go on to help a number of good causes.  “You can get some pretty good deals,” said Linda Meilan of Pompton Plains, director of the shop.   Store hours are Monday from 7pm – 9pm, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday from 10am –s 1pm.   Donations of new or gently used items can be made during store hours. The thrift shop is located at the church at 5 Bartholdi Avenue, Butler.

The shop started in 1984.   The church had an empty area in its lower level and members met to see how they could use it to serve the community better.  The idea of a thrift shop was born.  As for its name, Meilan explained what “gleaners” are.  “Gleaners are people who gather small amounts of grains or other produce left behind by harvesters.  There is a famous painting by Jean Francios Millet, painted in 1857, entitled ‘The Gleaners’.  It depicts three peasant women gleaning a field of stray stalks of wheat after the harvest,” she said.  The name, Gleaners, applies to the thrift shop in that those new gentle and lightly used items donated/left behind are gathered and put up for sale by the shop.

“God is good to us; we’re never without stock,” said Meilan.  The thrift shop sells clothing (for women, men, children, and babies), housewares, jewelry, pocketbooks, shoes, small items of furniture, book, small appliances, and more.  Coming into the shop have been brand names such as Talbots, Justice, and Abercrombie.  Also, with the holidays coming, it has seasonal items.    

The shop has over 20 volunteers.   They get to know customers and Meilan noted that the volunteers love seeing people leave with a good deal.  Meilan also said the volunteers have a lot of fun and joke with customers.  Some volunteers have noted benefiting from the interaction with the community, being busy and being creative. 

The monies from the thrift shop go to the Butler United Methodist Church which uses it to help Red Bird Mission (a mission in Appalachia) and the church’s food pantry (Loaves and Fishes), plus has funded overseas mission trips to Honduras, Mexico, and Costa Rica.  The shop helps with the apportionments the church gives the great United Methodist Church organization,  through which it supports African universities, the Black College Fund, World Service, crisis intervention (for natural disasters) and local missions.   Also, the shop reaches out in another way: if it hears of local victims of a fire, it will donate items from the shop to help them.

Nothing goes to waste at the shop.  It re-donates what isn’t selling to other thrift shops or offers it for free to customers.  Broken items which can’t be sold are recycled.   

For more information about the Gleaners Thrift Shop, visit its webpage at www.bumcnj.org.

Photo5:   A window display gets visitors in the fall mood while asking for prayers for Ukraine.