Many members have been following the story of Tony Apanovitch, a man wrongly convicted who remains on Death Row. The Prison Ministry Team has worked with and supported Tony for years. While he was released from prison a few years ago, many were able to meet him in person when he came to First Community as part of a Death Row panel presentation. If you're interested in learning more about the case, please follow the links below. To read an old firstnews article back when we were learning about Tony's case, please click here.

This letter was distributed to volunteers and supporters of the Trading Post, written by Beth Hanson.

This letter is being written the second week of December (with another week of sales to go before we close for the holidays) and we are thrilled to announce that our 2022 earnings for missions are now at a record-breaking $111,797.

86% of this total was raised from sales in the shop, but the other 14% is from money we have raised by selling items on eBay, consignment, and on-line auction. Plus, we even sell moth-eaten cashmere to a crafter in Kentucky and scrap metal to Cyclemet. Mission Council’s Annual Gigantic Garage Sale used to raise around $50-55,000 each May, but with the onset of COVID and the conclusion of the Garage Sale, the Trading Post became Mission Council’s new fundraising arm in November 2020. With the exception of some expenses and a 10% administrative fee paid to the church, the rest of our earnings go to the local, national, and international missions supported by our church. 

Clearly, we have had an extraordinary year as the store becomes more popular with young people and those who think to search on the internet for “thrift stores near me.” We haven’t even felt the need to spend money on advertising because word-of-mouth and readily available online information have proven so effective. On average, we are visited by 35 shoppers on any given day. However, one day this month, we had 67 people come in to shop and they spent a total of $1,751, more than double some off our best days. 

Our sales always have an end-of-year surge once we put Christmas merchandise out on the floor. All year we have squirreled away large plastic tubs of Christmas donations in the basement of Lincoln Road Chapel. When we dragged the bins out of the basement to tag everything (starting in October), we counted 106 tubs! In addition to that huge collection of Christmas items, we have continued to receive holiday donations every day, so our Christmas displays don’t get stale. 

Christmas aside, donations this year have been exceedingly generous. Fortunately, after Heart to Heart moved its operation into Brownlee Hall due to COVID, we acquired two rooms in the Annex Building in which to store our to-be-processed donations. The room next door to the Receiving Room is completely full right now with off-season clothing, dishes, glassware, lamps, toys, artwork, and a couple hundred pairs of children’s shoes donated by Brown’s Shoes at Tremont Shopping Center. (Brown’s is closing its doors in January and Marjorie Brown, the mother of the store’s owner, used to volunteer at the Trading Post.) We have also been storing boxes and boxes and boxes of donated books and artwork in the old Spiritual Searcher Room at the end of the hall. 

Due to our growth this year, we have added some new volunteer jobs to our process. On Monday nights, a group meets with Chris to tag clothing, and a different group meets with her on Tuesday to sort the huge volume of clothing donated each week. This has greatly improved our clothing bottleneck and has taken the pressure off Chris who was doing all of the sorting by herself! 

We have other tasks going on behind the scenes that you may not be aware of, so I want to give you a sense of the bigger picture. Jim Waddell and Julie Hanson Reiswig continue to sell high-end donations on eBay. Some donations we receive are just too expensive to make a fair amount in the store. To date, Jim has sold 182 items to 6 foreign countries and 38 states plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. He has mailed a Pomona Footed Soup Tureen to Israel, a Nikon camera to Malaysia, a complete DVD set of “Get Smart” to Ontario Canada, a Roy Orbison CD set to Little Rock, Arkansas, 60 Kentucky Derby glasses to Charleston, South Carolina, and a Woodstock 3-LP set to Herndon, Virginia. Early in the year, someone donated around 20 pairs of high-end men’s athletic shoes to us, most unworn. Julie has sold most of these on eBay to people all over the country, one pair even fetching $152 to someone in Las Vegas! 

Amongst these pairs of shoes were about six shoes without mates, which we hung on to for several months in case the mate surfaced. Our little pile of orphans (size 13) languished on a shelf month after month. (It is nearly impossible to throw away a brand new expensive shoe.) One day, the pile disappeared, and I thought someone had gotten sick of looking at it and had gotten rid of them. However, it turned out that our volunteer, Connie Warren, had taken the shoes to a nursing home where she volunteers, and they were able to give them to a man living there who has only one leg. I think that’s so awesome! Kudos to Connie who is the ultimate recycler, but I think this was one of her finest recycling efforts to-date! You should also know that Connie takes our not-up-to-snuff donations to Goodwill three times a week to keep our hallway cleared out of all the bags and boxes we collect for them. 

Richard Jacob continues to pay a weekly visit to the Annex Building to bring supplies for Heart to Heart’s pop-up pantry and to bring supplies for the Trading Post such as office supplies, Zip Lock bags, cleaning supplies, distilled water, silver polish, a new adding machine, laundry detergent and Oxyclean and just about anything we need to keep this ship afloat. (Chris and Beth do mounds of laundry each month.) He has also continued to test donated watches and put new batteries in them, so watch sales are way up from past years. 

Cathy Klamar takes three tubs of linens home during the week. She inspects them for stains, measures, packages, and tags them. As many of you probably remember, she was the head of the Linens Department at the Garage Sale, so she was a shoe-in for this job. Ever since she began packaging linens into clear zippered pouches, they look so much more inviting and organized on the shelves and have sold much better. 

Bev Minister, one of our Wednesday taggers, has taken on the job of metal polisher this year, taking home a box of tarnished donations almost weekly. In addition to polishing, she looks up their values on the internet. Her stamina and technological prowess at age 90 are astounding. We so appreciate how she has taken ownership of this job. 

During COVID, Portia Hanson (Beth and Cathy’s mother and a Trading Post volunteer since 1964) wrote out price tags for all the jewelry while stuck at home. (Beth assigns the price and Portia writes and affixes the tag.) This year, after a fall in June and a stint in the hospital and then rehabilitation and then a move to assisted living, she has continued to perform this task (along with cutting price tags). She still wants to participate even if she can no longer come into the shop. But also, it can be healing to continue to have a sense of purpose and normalcy during a time when the rest of your life is spinning out of control. Portia just turned 94 and her commitment to helping in a significant way is heart-warming. 

Chris’s husband, Marcel, and Rebecca Wolfe’s husband, Gary, have taken on the job of testing every electronic donation and even repairing them if possible. We make a point of selling only items that we have tested. If the item requires batteries to operate, we put batteries in it so shoppers can see that a toy or flashlight works before they buy it. Customers always ask, “Does it work?” and we want all volunteers to be able to confidently answer in the affirmative. The above-and-beyond-the-call-of-duty award goes to Marcel. He was testing a Southwestern-style clock that used turquoise stones as each hour marker and he noticed that the eleven o’clock stone was missing. He took it upon himself to go to a craft store, buy putty and paint, and fashion a new faux turquoise stone to replace the missing one! Don’t you love it?! 

You may not have met Barbara DeHays yet, but she was the head of the Antiques Department at the Garage Sale for several years and is also a professional auctioneer and doll aficionado and restorer. In fact, she recently refurbished Chris Casavant’s grandfather’s old teddy bear bringing it back from the dead and restoring it to a lovable state. (As an aside, Barb was also Marg Shore’s neighbor and one of her best friends. For those of you new to the Trading Post, Marg Shore volunteered at the Trading Post well past her 100^th birthday. She was a warm-hearted spitfire who made friends with every shopper who walked through the door….and we miss her!) Anyway, this year we have had a fair number of antique dolls donated to us and Barb offered to clean them up and price them affordably with the hope of attracting some dealers to our shop who are specifically interested in dolls. Right now, we have a collection of Madame Alexander dolls under the Christmas tree at our front door, but if you look, there are all kinds of interesting dolls sprinkled around the shop. She started bringing them in this fall, and we have probably sold around 15-20 so far. Without Barb’s expertise, we would have had no idea what kinds of dolls these were, nor what to sell them for. What are the odds of having a doll expert in the family?

Lisa Cole is a long-time customer of the Trading Post, and last year she approached me to ask how the Trading Post sells its estate jewelry. I appreciated her taking the initiative to ask because as a matter of fact, there was a large box of estate jewelry left over from the Garage Sale gathering dust and spiders in my basement. People occasionally donate jewelry of great value: diamonds, 18K gold, rubies, and such. It turns out Lisa has had a long career of selling antiques and high-end jewelry and she was offering her expertise to us when we didn’t even realize how much we needed it. Lisa arranged to come over to the Trading Post one day and teach us about the world of selling estate jewelry on-line. We had a lesson in how to test metals and diamonds, clean jewelry appropriately, and discern values. She also taught us about the various on-line places to sell expensive jewelry and how they all work. It was so interesting, but also overwhelming. In the end, Lisa offered to clean and package the jewelry we had collected, complete the required paperwork, and take the jewelry to a company called Everything But The House (aka, EBTH). They hold on-line auctions for each individual piece. The most expensive piece we sold was a small 14K gold, seed pearl and enamel Krementz broach with a rendering of Bleeding Heart flowers which sold for a whopping $800! Our profit from the EBTH auctions was an astounding $4,897! 

It certainly takes a village to keep the Trading Post running. We are so proud of the dedication and care and heart that everyone brings to the undertaking, whatever their individual task may be. Steaming, washing dishes, doing laundry, sorting, tagging, displaying, sizing, cashiering, Swiffering, and so many other unglamorous and often tedious tasks are required to make the shop one we can be proud of. Our volunteers are so kind and helpful with our customers and create relationships with so many of them. I think people tend to get a warm and fuzzy feeling just coming down to our little adorable oasis. It is beautiful, organized, and welcoming and always provides abundant variety and good quality at great prices. It just has great energy and that is one of those intangible things that keeps people coming back to see us again and again.  Of course, people also feel good knowing their money is going to good causes, but if we were cranky and the shop was in disarray, the good causes wouldn’t be enough to succeed at raising this kind of money. 

Thank you for all the work and love you pour into this happy little shop. It is satisfying to watch people find their niche and the ways they enjoy contributing. Somehow it all comes together like a big puzzle. You always bring your best selves to the effort, and we are SO exceedingly grateful. We look forward to a fun and rewarding 2023!

-Beth, Chris, and Cathy

Since the original writing of this letter, the totals have been updated to include sales from the final shopping week of 2022! See below.

¹ $7,059 from Jim Waddell and $2,531 from Julie Reiswig

² One More Time, Etc. and Second Chance, includes the sale of Arlene Keethler’s furniture, which was willed to the Trading Post

³ Cathy Hanson does monthly scrap metal drop-offs at Cyclemet on the near west side off McKinley Ave. She takes wire hangers, rusty fry pans, old metal porch furniture, aluminum cans, dead Christmas lights, broken kitchen appliances, etc.

⁴ Donation from sending moth-eaten cashmere sweaters to a crafter

⁵ Vases are sold to April’s Flowers on West Fifth Ave.

⁶ Sold via online auction through Everything But The House

In 2022, Trading Post profits contributed to grants awarded by the Mission Council to the following organizations:

Additionally, material donations were made to:

• Hope Center: We often get clothing that isn’t good enough to sell, but is still serviceable. The volunteers from Heart to Heart’s Pop-Up-Pantry take these clothes and shoes to the Hope Center which helps men and women who struggle with drug addiction.
• Little Bottoms: We also collect children’s clothing (sizes 0 to 5T) for an organization called Little Bottoms that distributes it to low-income mothers. April from April’s Flowers is our contact for this project.
• Nehemiah House of Refuge: We have donated men’s dress suits to this organization. Their goal is to empower and educate the disadvantaged, unsheltered, and veterans to help them overcome the multiple challenges that kept them from experiencing maximum success in their lives.

Other Interesting Statistics

• 35 Average number of shoppers per day
• 215 New shoppers tallied in 2022
• 2,151 Individual Christmas items sold from Nov. 1 – Dec. 16
• $4,260 Raised from selling Christmas merchandise
• $3 Average cost per item sold in the store
• $1,980 Average weekly earnings
• $8,150 Average monthly earnings
• $8,692 Amount raised in 2022 by being open the first Saturday of the month. (This was the first year we have been open on these first Saturdays for a full 12 months.)

The Trading Post reopens for the year on Wednesday, January 4. The store will also be open on Saturday, January 7 and Monday, January 16. While the church will be closed for MLK Day, the Trading Post will be open for shopping from 10 am to 4 pm.

by Rick Greene

The mind of the prudent acquires knowledge,

and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge. Proverbs 18:15

In 1975, medical practitioner Dr. Neela Onawale and her husband Bhaskar Onawale started a one-room clinic to treat the residents of Pune’s marginalized community. With the help of likeminded friends, Deep Griha Society began operations in July that year and, within a further two years, was serving more than 100 people a day.

From treating patients, Dr. Onawale quickly realized that many of the medical conditions affecting the slum community were caused by malnutrition. Since 1975, Deep Griha has constantly expanded and adapted its services to empower the disadvantaged community through support and education, giving people the skills and confidence they need to improve their lives.

Over the years, the Society has developed a strong rapport with the community by ensuring that community members have a platform to participate in the initiation and development of programs. This ensures that programs are relevant and valued by the community. Deep Griha’s field workers are present in the community every day to follow up with participants and ensure their opinions and experiences are fed back to the Deep Griha decision makers.

One of its aims is to always ensure that its funds are spent where they are most needed. With this in mind, it have been responsive to the changing needs of the community and to the work with other organizations so Deep Griha does not avoid duplicating services.

Pune is a city in west-central Maharashtra state in western India and is the cultural capital of the Maratha peoples. The city first gained importance as the capital of the Bhonsle Marathas in the 17th century. It was temporarily captured by the Mughals but again served as the official Maratha capital from 1714 until its fall to the British in 1817. It was the seasonal capital of the Bombay Presidency and is now a popular tourist resort, offering cool weather, historic and religious monuments, museums, parks, hotels, and cultural attractions. Pune has long been considered as a major educational and cultural center.

Deep Griha has a history of working with the Tadiwala Road, Ramtekadi, and Bibvewadi communities. Additional information can be located at https://deepgriha.org.

The slum community of Tadiwala Road is home to around 70,000 people, many of whom are enrolled in its programs or join in its frequent celebrations. The main problems faced by this community are poor healthcare, hygiene, and poverty, which in turn leads to a low standard of education and high illiteracy rate. Because of the large population of this community, many of Deep Griha’s programs provide immediate care and support as well as empowering the beneficiaries to become more self-sufficient.

The Ramtekadi community of Pune was the first location where Deep Griha started, to provide nutrition and healthcare to the marginalized slum community. Over the years, the programs here have continued to expand. With over 35,000 people living in the Ramtekadi community, many programs include childcare, youth empowerment, and child development in the form of recreation activities and English lessons.

The slum community of Bibvewadi is home to a fewer number of people, and the support provided there is extensive but on a smaller scale, when compared with Tadiwala Road and Ramtekdi. The main problems faced by this community are similar to the other marginalized communities that Deep Griha support--lack of space and housing forces families to live in cramped and unhygienic living conditions, a lack of medical care, and good nutrition results in poor healthcare in adults and children alike. From the Bibvewadi Family Welfare Centre, the programs include a small nursery facility, adult education classes, and maternal and newborn healthcare. Volunteer and full-time doctors also perform frequent medical health-checks with the children who visit the center.

Other activities include the Aadhar Kendra Sponsorship Programme (e.g., providing education material like notebooks, textbooks, and bags), City of Child (e.g., Audencia Business School, child empowerment, and planting of fruit trees), Deep Griha Academia (prevention of suicide education, sports, communication, social skills), Income Generation Programme (cooking meals for children and senior citizens), Tech SMART Centers (training), and scholarship programs (provided by BNY Mellon) for students enrolled in vocational courses, including nursing and technical studies.

The effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic continue to be felt and have an impact around the world in many different ways, forcing Deep Griha to re-evaluate its ways of working in what is hoped to be, near the end of this pandemic. The Society continues to move beyond the pandemic by revising programming to meet its mission of empowerment of the marginalized through capacity building, and sustainable rural and urban development and programs utilizing lessons learned and changes to the local environment over the past two years.

First Community Church has actively supported this organization for several years. Besides promoting fund raisers, the Mission Council has recently provided for the funding for the renovation of the outdoor kitchen and eating area in Tadiwala Road Center. This renovation has upgraded the previous kitchen space which doubles up as a drop-in center senior citizens. This funding helped Deep Griha to have additional space for activities designed around the older members of the community.

In 2007, some members of First Community Church formed Deep Griha USA, a non-profit organization in Columbus. The purposes of the organization are to raise funds for Deep Griha; report to USA donors on the cost effectiveness, sustainability, and transparency of Deep Griha as observed on visits to Pune by our representatives; and respond to Deep Griha requests for assistance. During its first year, the organization helped raise capital funds of more than $140,000 for schools in Pune. Since that time, other organizations have also supported Deep Griha, including those in Central Ohio such as First Congregational Church, Dublin Community Church, Rotary Club of Upper Arlington, and Rotary Club of Dublin. Other supporting organization include the Medina Rotary Club (Medina, OH), Raleigh Mennonite Church (Raleigh, NC), and United Church of Christ Headquarters, Global Ministries (Cleveland, Ohio). More information is available at https://deepgrihausa.org.

If you would like more information about Deep Griha, First Community Church, its other Mission programs, or are interested in joining the Mission Council for 2023, please email us at mission@fcchurch.com