PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Catholic Charities Maine is in the process of moving its Threads of Hope thrift store into the Aroostook Centre Mall.
The faith-based nonprofit takes large-scale donations of building material, clothing, food, furniture and appliances. Recycled textiles in Aroostook County are also shipped out to overseas markets to help the operational costs of running a food bank.
The move will reduce costs of shipping to Monticello if there was no space within the Threads of Hope location in Presque Isle. Catholic Charities’ new 21,000-square-foot retail location in the mall will have a loading dock for their donation deliveries and a modified cardboard baling machine for their textile donations.
“We want to be well settled in before the holiday season is upon us and take advantage of the opportunities here during the holiday season,” said Dixie Shaw, program director of Hunger and Relief Services for Catholic Charities Maine.
Catholic Charities will move its Threads of Hope Thrift Store at 56 State St. into what used to be Staples in the back of the Aroostook Centre Mall. Catholic Charities needed more space, now that it has outgrown their current location in Presque Isle.
The more money Catholic Charities can raise through efforts like their thrift store operations, the more money they have to help the people living in Aroostook County, Shaw said.
The faith-based nonprofit is running a moving sale to downsize before the move into the Aroostook Centre Mall. Some shelving units have been moved to the new location, according to Jill Hotham, store manager for Threads of Hope.
Threads of Hope has three locations in Aroostook County and one in York County with the proceeds from thrift stores going toward operating its food bank that serves 29 food pantries across Aroostook County.
Staff will be consolidated from Threads of Hope and the Hope Chest Boutique, which is already in the mall, into the location that used to be Staples and Porteous in the Aroostook Centre Mall.
“We’ve had a lot of wonderful donations this past few months that have really exceeded our hopes, dreams and expectations,” Shaw said.
One of Catholic Charities recent large scale donations were two tractor trailer truck loads and eight box trucks of stock from for the last six weeks from The Marie Joseph Spiritual Center being sold in Biddeford Pool and operated by an order of nuns from Massachusetts called The Sisters of the Presentation of Mary, according to Shaw.
Shaw spoke with the new mall owner Dana Cassidy about consolidating the Hope Chest Boutique into the new store space when he took over in June. Porteous has an additional 30,000 square feet of space with plans to renovate that space and other mall space into affordable senior housing.
