Close one door – open three more.
Discontinuing the ReStore for Mon Valley Habitat for Humanity wasn’t an easy decision, said Elaine Holstine McVay, the executive director of the organization that builds homes for families who might not have that opportunity otherwise.
However, she said, the move will now enable Mon Valley Habitat to focus solely on the business of putting up such dwellings.
In coming days, ground will be broken on Nos. 70, 71 and 72 in Fairmont, the executive director said. That’s how many homes to date will have been put up by the local organization, which was founded in Morgantown in 1976.
The ReStore, which was located in Sabraton, closed Wednesday.
Even with walk-in traffic and steady donations – the ReStore specialized in used furniture and clothing – sales had been in decline over the months, McVay said.
“It was a difficult decision,” she said.
“Our board of directors didn’t make it lightly – but now we can focus on our core mission.”
An “inventory reduction sale” is now in the works, the executive director said, with that date to be announced on Mon Valley Habitat’s social media outlets.
For now, the organization is trying to line up employment opportunities for the store’s two full-time employees and three part-timers who are now out of work, McVay said.
“That’s what makes it sad,” she said, “but we’re going to do everything we can do.”
In the meantime, she said, the organization is doing everything it can do to get its planned construction going in Fairmont.
The three single-family homes will be located on Robinson Street, in the Marion County city’s once-thriving Bellview neighborhood, McVay said.
“Our families are excited, the city is excited and we’re excited,” she said. “These are three families who will get to achieve that American dream of home ownership.”
It comes, in part, by way of the “sweat equity” families provide during the construction, along the zero-percent loan that lets them move in.
Habitat for Humanity International was founded in 1976 in Americus, Ga.
Since then, nearly 50 million people across the U.S. and in 70 countries have gotten to call a Habitat home – their home.
