GRACEful Buys Grapevine is one of our upscale resale stores that funds a large portion of our annual budget. This storefront is generated by donations given to us by our extraordinary community, who are always eager to give back to GRACE and its programs. Within the community is the lifeblood of GRACE: our volunteers. GRACE volunteers are always searching for new ways to spread the message of GRACE, in hopes of delivering a brighter tomorrow to our clients.
A couple of months ago, GRACEful Buys received a large donation of books of all genres. GRACEful Buys Manager, Sandy Laquey, had a brilliant idea of having a library room inside GRACEful Buys for customers to visit. The room would be filled with different kinds of books for customers of all ages and interests. Unfortunately, Sandy was too busy to take this on by herself while running the store. However, Gateway Church members were participating in their service week at the time, and they enthusiastically offered to bring this vision to life.
Throughout their entire service week, Gateway Church supplied volunteers to clean out the old room to make way for new decorations and items in the new library room. First Baptist Grapevine also provided support by supplying volunteers to organize the renovated space. Nancy Martin, a member at the local church, donated matching bookshelves to replace the hodge-podge of current shelves and make it look more coherent.
After all of the sorting and gathering was complete, an NCL mother-daughter pair promised to come into the store regularly to organize the room, which they continue to this day. When speaking to Sandy about volunteers, she said “ Volunteers help make this store run smoothly, and we appreciate them so much.”
We have a wonderful staff here at GRACEful Buys. They are hardworking and always willing to step up when needed. There is rarely a day where the GRACEful Buys staff are not busy. If they are not assisting customers with purchases, then they are usually in the backlot unloading items that have been processed at GRACE’s Donation Station. Due to the busy dynamic of the store, volunteers truly make all the difference.
Whether it’s through donations or volunteerism, GRACE will always welcome the support that it gets from the community.
If you or anyone you know has ideas about how they can serve at GRACE, please contact our Volunteer Manager at Volunteer@GRACEGrapevine.org.
