BUCKHANNON – The Upshur Cooperative Parish House will be selling new clothes during an indoor yard sale this weekend.
Isaac Casto, the executive director of the Parish House, said the indoor yard sale will take place on July 13 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., July 14 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and July 15 from 9 a.m. to noon at the West Virginia Wesleyan College auxiliary gym. All proceeds from the sale will go back to the Parish House to fund programs.
“We get a lot of new clothes throughout the year with tags on them,” Casto told My Buckhannon. “Some people buy clothes, and they don’t fit, or they’re gifts, or there are some people who get those pallet sales, and they take out the parts they want and donate the rest. We can keep prices low for the community and for people in need, but it’s also a way to increase funding for our projects.”
The Parish House has tried offering short-term sales outside, but it was always time-consuming to set up and break down every day.
“Kristi [Wilkerson] had an idea last year and reached out to Wesleyan, and they let us use the auxiliary gym,” Casto said. “That way, we could go set up for multiple days and not have to worry about setting up and tearing down every day. It was very successful last year, so we’re hoping to see a good turnout again.”
The Parish House also runs the Clothes Closet daily, behind their main building.
“It’s like a thrift store,” Casto said. “It’s a different way we can support our neighbors and support our programming and the services we provide. It’s all donation-driven. We have some staff down there, but it’s mostly volunteers, sorting through clothes, sizing them, washing them and cleaning them.”
Casto said the clothes at the Clothes Closet are gently used and are listed at a reduced price.
“It’s available to anybody in the community to come shop there, but we also have a clothing voucher program through the Parish House,” Casto said. “If somebody comes in, maybe needing food assistance or utility assistance, we can also offer them a clothing voucher once a month. They, and anybody else in their household, can go and get an outfit if they need that.”
All the donations made at the Clothes Closet or the Parish House remain in Upshur County.
“I’m afraid some people disconnect us, because it’s not in the same building, but it is the same programming,” Casto said. “Any donations that come here, stay in Upshur County, and all of the funds we raise go directly to operations and programming.”
If people are interested in donating clothing, Casto recommended checking their Facebook page to make sure they are accepting donations.
“For the most part, we are usually accepting donations,” he said. “If there are ever times that we are not, it means our storage buildings are just a little too full, especially when we have the indoor yard sale coming up or the big, statewide yard sale. We really try to move through donations as quickly as we can. We need the space, and if there are items that people can use, then we want to get those out into the community and into the hands of people who need them.”
