By Vernon Robison
Moapa Valley Progress
Beginning next week, Cappalappa Family Resource will be offering a new service to the Moapa Valley community. The center, which is devoted to being the core, one stop shop for family services in Moapa Valley, will be opening a new thrift store in its downtown Overton offices.
A grand opening for the new Cappalappa Thrift Store will be held on Monday, May 2 at 10:00 a.m. at 183 N. Moapa Valley Blvd. The public is invited to come and see the new store and what it offers.
The thrift shop has been in the works for several months. Seeing the writing on the wall for reductions in public funding of the center, the Cappalappa Board of Directors wanted to find a way to keep existing services running.
“The thrift store concept is just forward thinking on fundraising needs,” said Penny Vallone of Cappalappa FRC. “We have relied on state grants for our funding in the past. We just realized that there was a good chance that those sources of funding would be reduced or lost altogether. So this is a way to address all of that in advance.”
Cappalappa has long been known as a place for local residents to donate their unwanted items. The center has collected such donated items throughout the year and then sold them at a fundraising yard sale at year’s end. With the new store, donated items will now be available for purchase year round.
“This is another way for the community to help the community,” Vallone said. “Given the tough times we are in, a lot of people can’t make us cash donations. But they can, and many do, donate items that we can sell. Now they will also be able to come in and make purchases in the Thrift Store. Either way it helps us in the work we do in the community.”
The Cappalappa store will be the second thrift store operating in downtown Overton; with the Senior Center Thrift Store being the first. But Vallone doesn’t really see having the two stores operating at once as an issue.
“I don’t really see this as in competition with the Senior Center at all,” Vallone said. “We are very different organizations with different goals. The Senior Center store has a much larger space and can offer more items that we just can’t do. We are a smaller shop and will be very specialized in what we can offer. Both organizations have been known for a long time as traditional donation spots so I don’t anticipate that the source or volume of donations is going to change much.”
Vallone also stated that the store wouldn’t change the core mission of CFRC in providing for needs in the community. “We will still be helping families that have needs,” Vallone said. “Each situation is unique and we have a process for assessing the needs of a family. We will still help in providing for those things as we always have done.”
But the Thrift Store will allow for enhanced service in that regard, Vallone said. “We see a lot of families that are very low income who need clothing or other things that they just can’t afford to buy new,” Vallone said. “But they are very excited to be able to pay for items in this way. It is a way for them to be able to receive the help they need while contributing to the effort as well.”
The CFRC staff has worked hard to prepare for next week’s Grand Opening event. The store is stocked with clothing, housewares, home decor items, books, children’s toys and some electronics. “We are very excited about this and happy to get started,” Vallone said.
The store will be open Monday thru Friday from 10 am to 2 pm. Donations to the Cappalappa Thrift Store are always appreciated. But CFRC requests that the donations be dropped off during business hours only. This will ensure that all donations are actually received by CFRC and in good condition. It also allows the donor to obtain a tax deductible receipt from CFRC staff.
