Look
for the bright green sign behind the coffee shop, and you’ll find
Ocracoke’s newest emporium, Village Thrift. The thrift shop,
which shares its space with Blue Door Antiques, will support the
Ocracoke Youth Center by selling donated items, T-shirts and
sweatshirts, and homemade bags.
Village Thrift is the brainchild of Paula Schramel, owner of the Blue
Door and a member of the OYC board. She hopes the thrift shop will
provide an ongoing source of income for the youth center and bring in
money for the non-profit organization from visitors as well as
residents.
The two shops occupy the retail space attached to Ocracoke Coffee
Company that formerly housed Java Books. The Blue Door will get two
thirds of the space and Village Thrift will take a third. Paula
will manage both with no cost to OYC. The shops will be open 8 a.m.
until 4 p.m., seven days a week. Paula will work five days a week and
volunteers will fill in on her days off. With low overhead costs,
Village Thrift should bring in a steady income.
Paula says that local response to the thrift store has been tremendous.
She has already accepted many items, including some generous donations
of furniture.
“The timing is right in this economy for a thrift store,”
she said. “And we want to be ecological and encourage recycling
and reuse. People won’t have to take stuff to the dump to get rid
of it.”
The idea of creative reuse isn’t new on Ocracoke. Many residents
fondly remember Cork’s Closet thrift store, which thrived for
years. Most locals have a good story about finding just what they
needed at the dump – affectionately known as Ocracoke’s
Wal-Mart. And in the old days, islanders found uses for shipwrecked
lumber and the flotsam and jetsam washed up on the beach.
“Villagers’ use of salvaged materials goes back almost 300 years,” Paula said.
She hopes eventually to extend the porch and add a lean-to for building materials and old doors and windows.
“I hate to see things thrown away if they can be used again,” she said.
Paula points out that Village Thrift will be a good place for locals to
buy items they can’t otherwise get on the island, like
lampshades, for instance. (There’s already a nice selection of
lampshades on display.)
She’s also happy to find a new home for The Blue Door. Originally
opened in 2001 in an old house on Lighthouse Road, The Blue Door was a
popular antique and gift shop for six years. Paula closed her shop so
she and her husband Michael could start a complete historic renovation
on the old house, where they now live. Last year, she had some retail
space in Hatteras village, but now she can stay put on Ocracoke.
The new Blue Door will carry a selection of antique china, pottery,
quilts, jewelry, paintings and more. There will also be some affordable
used and antique furniture. Paula will consider taking big-ticket items
on consignment if she has available space in the small shop.
Paula pays the rent on the new retail space and will sublet to OYC for
the thrift store’s share. She’ll report on income and
expenses to the OYC board, which will have oversight of Village Thrift.
The Outer Banks Community Foundation recently awarded a grant to OYC
for start-up costs for the Village Thrift. The grant monies are paying
for custom-built shelving and storage units, three exterior and one
interior sign, a donation box for inside the store, advertising in
local papers (which OYC is getting at a discount), and Village Thrift
T-shirts and hooded sweatshirts to be sold in the shop.
The OBCF grant also pays for bright green stickers for the Village Thrift items.
“We don’t want any confusion about inventory, between
what’s the Blue Door’s and what’s the thrift
store’s,” Paula said. “Everything that’s
donated will go to the Youth Center and have a Village Thrift
sticker.”
Another of Paula’s ideas is to have volunteers make reusable
shopping bags out of donated fabric and old clothes or sheets they
can’t sell. The grant will pay for Village Thrift cloth labels for
the sewn items.
Paula has been on the OYC board for eight years. She held annual
fundraising yard sales for OYC for the past three years, so she knows
that folks will donate and buy used stuff.
“The yard sales had great community and visitor support, but we
had to sell things so cheaply to move it all in one day. With the
thrift store, we can get a better price for the things people
donate,” she said.
“Everyone has stuff to get rid of. Hotline and Kings’
Daughters are great charities, but people like donating to a local
charity,” she added.
Paula expects that traffic flow from the coffee shop, which has upwards
of 500 customers a day in the summer, will be good, and that locals
will stop in regularly to see what’s new.
“Our inventory will change daily,” she said. “You never know what we might have.”
How to Donate to Village Thrift
Because there’s virtually no storage and retail space is limited,
donations are accepted on specific days and times only. Please call
92-Thrift (928-4743) to find out when to bring your stuff.
Please don’t leave items on the porch!
Village Thrift does not want VHS tapes, computers, computer equipment
or large appliances. The shop is currently accepting clean, wearable
clothing.
All proceeds will benefit Ocracoke Youth Center
OYC is a non-profit organization that provides fun and educational
programming for the island’s kids. From baby and toddler
playgroup to an after school program for grades K– 2 to Teen
Night, OYC has ongoing programs for all ages. Over the winter,
they’ve also offered eight weeks of basketball for Pre-K through
eighth grade, an after school book club, two music clubs, and a play
performed by and for kids. OYC provides an array of sports and
enrichment activities during the summer.
About one half of the OYC operating budget comes from Ocracoke
Occupancy Tax funds. Other sources of income include private donations,
fundraisers (yard sales, progressive dinners, and kids’ movie
nights), gifts from island organizations such as Ocracoke Invitational
Surf Fishing Tournament and Ocracoke Art Walk, and nominal fees for
programs. Again this summer, OYC will be one of the local non-profits
to benefit from the Ocracoke Island Realty matching funds program, in
which donations from renters and property owners are matched by OIR.
