Summerland non-profit working to boost health care hit by repeated thefts

Donation drop-offs astatine the Summerland Health-Care Auxiliary Thrift Store are a regular occurrence but these days, unfortunately, truthful are thefts.

Ever since the thrift store installed cameras earlier this year, those thieves person been caught successful the act.

“Every nighttime connected mean I witnesser astir 15 antithetic radical travel here,” said Kurt Evans, a unpaid and the auxiliary’s archetypal vice-president.

The store is located connected Victoria Road N with its donation bins situated extracurricular astatine the backmost of the store.

According to Evans, immoderate of the offenders are unhoused.

“Sometimes, I’ll travel down and drawback them successful the act,” Evans told Global News. “You speech to them and you say, listen, you know, you’re stealing from a store that yet raises wealth that yet is going to spell backmost to assistance you.”

That’s due to the fact that the thrift store, which is operated by the long-existing auxiliary, helps enactment different non-profit groups and wellness programs with the proceeds of its sales.

“Last twelvemonth successful 2023, we gave distant $403,000 which is astonishing for a tiny community,” said Shannon Toop, the auxiliary’s president.

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Right present the store is moving towards a large extremity that volition boost crab attraction successful the region.

“We are giving a cardinal dollars to the oncology session astatine the Penticton hospital, we person 5 years to implicit that and truthful acold we’ve been capable to wage disconnected $550,000 successful conscionable implicit 2 years,” Toop said.

And it’s not conscionable thefts the auxiliary is dealing with, there’s different alarming inclination involving garbage.

“We’re having assemblage members, successful our assemblage amusement up amongst the postulation of thievery going connected and they are dumping their existent garbage successful our bins,” Evans said.

Both the thefts and changeless dumping of garbage are taking a toll connected the volunteers trying to marque a quality successful the community.

“We privation to bash our champion for the assemblage and radical are stealing,” an affectional Toop said. “It is disheartening.”

The auxiliary is asking radical to not driblet disconnected items aft closing hours to assistance halt the thefts.

It’s besides encouraging assemblage members to store astatine the store and see becoming a much-needed unpaid truthful its 115-year-long goodwill cognition tin continue.