Thrifting with Purpose

When HEATHER HOLBROOK first visited the Rescue Mission of Cape Fear’s thrift store, she saw it was not living up to its potential. A new staffer, JACINTA WILSON, invited her to come work with her. The two women’s visions and enthusiasm for the store aligned.    

“We were given an inch of permission and took a mile,” Holbrook recalls. “We overhauled the store so there’s immediate gratification when you walk in. I am a marketing person; I eat, live, and breathe marketing and relationships in the community.”  

Housed in a former Winn-Dixie grocery store at 502 Castle Street, the Rescue Mission of Cape Fear is a “confluence of community, authenticity, of meeting people where they are, and treating people with dignity,” says Holbrook, who has served as the organization’s manager of operations for the past eighteen months or so. “We encourage (Rescue Mission workers) to see that among ourselves, and we foster it. We want to be that example.” 

From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. this Saturday, October 12, the Rescue Mission is hosting a party open to the public, featuring a cookout and D.J., in celebration of the organization’s fiftieth anniversary. That milestone is testament to the commitment, perseverance, and sheer grit shown over the years by its board, staff, and volunteers. 

The organization’s core mission is “to serve the homeless, hungry, and hurting,” as stated on its website, and its residential facility can accommodate up to sixteen men. Clients come from all walks of life and have any number of reasons they arrive at the Rescue Mission’s door.  Both the Rescue Mission’s thrift store and residential facility are housed in the former grocery store. 

During the first month of participation in the ninety-day, Christian-based program, residents staff the store. Holbrook looks to tap whatever skills they may have, from ease with customers to providing willing muscle. After their thirty-day stint is over, the men must find external employment, helped by Rescue Mission staff and volunteers.  Then they move back into the community at large. The organization’s goal is to equip each resident to make that move successful, but there are daunting challenges, just as there were fifty years ago. 

“Nothing has changed since 1974, but everything has changed,” Holbrook says. “We recognize that people are losing hope, they are in a dark place, or they feel disconnected and separated from family. Some have no family, so we become their family. Mental illness and substance abuse are equal opportunity – no matter your background. Affordable housing is unavailable.”

Holbrook’s husband tells her that her career arc led her to the Rescue Mission. 

“I have a journalism degree from the University of Missouri and have held a bunch of different jobs,” she says. “They are all related in a way, and my degree has served me well, because I know how to gather facts and exercise discernment. I’m always writing and marketing, and I’m using those skills to innovate and to raise the visibility of the Rescue Mission.” 

By artfully arranging furniture and housewares, highlighting real finds, and grouping like items, Holbrook and Wilson have made the thrift store into a destination for both treasure hunters and bargain shoppers. Holbrook regularly posts unusual items on Instagram.

With the exception of box springs and mattresses, which North Carolina law prohibits it from accepting, the Rescue Mission thrift store takes pretty much everything else, according to Holbrook. 

“We stage things to make it cute and accessible,” she says of the store. “People can picture (an item) in their own house. The crafty population comes in here to find materials. All clothes are two dollars; shoes are three dollars. People start talking to each other in here. We’ve earned our street cred by being here on Castle Street. Traffic here every day is massive.”  

The store attracts a regular clientele, some of whom leave notes on a door, asking to be notified if the store receives a particular item.  

“People come here for connection,” Holbrook says.  

It takes considerable money to operate the Rescue Mission, but with increased revenue from the thrift store and partnerships with about twenty churches in the area, the organization is “holding the line,” Holbrook says. Looking ahead, the staff want to find more grant opportunities and more sources of revenue and support. They would like to make their operation – already very lean – more efficient.  

But the heart of the mission – living out the gospel in serving a homeless and hurting population – is what sustains Holbrook and her colleagues. 

“That is interwoven in what we do every day and how we operate,” she says. “It exposes people to another way of looking at things. We are looking for ways to re-establish hope, and we may be the only Jesus they ever see. At all times we’re preaching the gospel, and, if necessary, we use words.”

To view more of photographer Daria Amato’s work, go to dariaphoto.com

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