Shop For a Cause

All proceeds from Thrift Harbor benefit Hope Harbor Children’s Home & Academy.

Mary Baumgardner, one of the shift store managers, arranges scarves on a display at Thrift Harbor.

When Thrift Harbor – located at 316 W. Will Rogers Blvd.  – opened in Claremore less than three years ago, the business began growing from the moment of its birth. Outgrowing their first location in a matter of months, they moved into their current, larger building down the street in September of 2012.
    According to Shane McClaugherty, who oversees the daily operations of the nonprofit store, 100 percent of the proceeds go to support Hope Harbor Children’s Home & Academy and their Family Ministries. Since 1947, Hope Harbor, a licensed residential care facility, has provided services to improve the lives of children from infancy through young adulthood. The most intensive part of Hope Harbor’s services, the Children’s Home, is designed to meet the needs of at-risk teens whose lives are heading in the wrong direction. The home, located north of Claremore, has separate cottages for boys and girls with full-time house parent couples. An on-site school is also provided.
    “We opened Thrift Harbor in March of 2011 to support Hope Harbor and serve the community with quality items at an economical price,” says Shane. “It helps everyone during hard economic times to be able to shop here at our thrift store.”
    The store’s everyday low prices of $1.50 for quality adult and children’s clothing draws people in the door to shop for their families. “We charge $3 for outwear like coats, and shoes start at $2 per pair,” he adds.
    Knick-knacks, books, furniture and collectibles range in price from twenty-five cents to $15. “We try to keep everything in the store low cost,” says McClaugherty.
    New clothes are put out daily. In fact, more than 50,000 clothing items were sold at the store in 2013. Each item sold, in turn, made a difference in the life of a child or family right here in Oklahoma. To make a clothing donation or to donate other items, you can drop them off at the store, or at any of their blue donation bins located around the state. For pickup, call (918) 855-1389.  
    More clothing and shoe donation bins have been purchased, and area churches or businesses with a convenient location are being sought that would be willing to have a bin placed on their property. Allowing space for these bins has been a wonderful way for individuals, churches and businesses to make the services Hope Harbor provides a possibility for children and families in need.
    Hope Harbor offers a full range of services, both on campus and off, through child and family-centered counseling in the community, parent training workshops in church and community settings, a prison ministry outreach to parents who are incarcerated, and clothing rooms in each of the public schools in the Claremore community. All told, Hope Harbor provides services to more than 2,000 children and family members every year. All services are provided regardless of ability to pay.
    “We offer low-cost child-and-family-centered counseling to anyone in the community,” says McClaugherty. Counseling is available at the Blue Starr Church of Christ Family Life Center and is part of Hope Harbor’s family ministries outreach.
    Hope Harbor also provides parent-training workshops tailored to meet the needs of those attending. Presenters walk step-by-step through core principles of parenting in these seminars designed for parents, caregivers, and anyone working to make a difference in the lives of children. Problems are described in a way that makes finding a solution possible. Participants leave with new understandings, new skills, and a new hope.
    In addition to being licensed to provide residential care through the Children’s Home, Hope Harbor is licensed as a Child Placing Agency. This allows the organization to establish and oversee foster homes for ­residents who are unable to return home after they ­complete the Character Growth program at the Children’s Home.

For more information, contact

Thrift Harbor

www.thriftharbor.com

About Author Carol Beck-Round

After 30 years in public school education, Carol Round retired and moved from Grand Lake to Claremore, Oklahoma in 2005, where she writes a weekly faith-based column which runs in 14 Oklahoma newspapers as well as several national and international publications. Three volumes of her columns have been compiled into collections: A Matter of Faith, Faith Matters and by FAITH alone. She has also written Journaling with Jesus: How to Draw Closer to God and a companion workbook, The 40-Day Challenge. This past year she has written three children’s books, a series called Nana’s 3 Jars, to teach children about the value of giving, saving and spending money. All of Carol’s books are available through Amazon. In addition to writing her weekly column, authoring books and speaking to women’s groups, she writes for Value News. She also blogs regularly at www.carolaround.com. When she is not writing or speaking, she loves spending time with her three grandchildren, working in her flowerbeds, shooting photos, volunteering at her church or going on mission trips overseas, and hiking. She is also an avid reader and loves working crosswords and trying to solve Sudoku puzzles.