Where stuff no longer needed at home can do great good

Out with the old.

There may be no better place to see the old going out, to multilayered beneficial effect, than at one of Goodwill Industries’ busy, local donation drop-off centers.

The other day outside the Goodwill thrift store on Industrial Drive in north Santa Rosa, car after car pulled into the drop-off bay. The safely masked person or people in the car stepped out, popped the trunk or hatchback gate or rear door, and hoisted bags or boxes of things they’re ready to give away.

“We have some dishes and some clothes,” Anne Hernandez of Santa Rosa announced to attendant Jay Ledwick. Hernandez and a young helper placed in the appropriate bins a nice selection of kitchenware and bags of clothing.

Hernandez said her family just remodeled their kitchen, a good opportunity to give away cookware and such that is no longer needed. Then there was the clothing.

“I just realized I had so much stuff,” Hernandez said. She’d decided to pull out winter coats and such that she hadn’t worn in some time, perhaps for years, and that she thought someone else might like to have.

How much better that all of Hernandez’s castoffs go to Goodwill rather than into a trash can. As donated items, they will be offered for sale to shoppers who relish or require a good deal.

And dollars from the sales will go to pay the salaries of Goodwill employees such as the fellow who accepted Hernandez’s items.

Jay Ledwick said he’s had his job at Goodwill for five years. “I love it,” he said.

“I had a gap in my employment history, and they overlooked it,” he said of his Goodwill employers. “They gave me a chance when no one else would.”

Ledwick, who’s 44, said the donation drop-off center on Industrial Drive has been hopping for about the last month, with about 200 cars driving through each day. To him, even 100 a day is good.

Regine Dunn, director of donated goods for the Goodwill organization that covers Sonoma, Napa and Mendocino counties, said people have been wonderful about dropping items at 12 regional drop-off centers.

“It really means everything to us,” Dunn said. “It’s what keeps our people employed.”

Across the region, Goodwill hires individuals with disabilities and other barriers to employment to help accept, sort, display and sell secondhand items.

Dunn said more workers are needed, as a few Goodwill retail locations are closed or are not at full operation because of a lack of adequate staffing.

“We have many open positions that we would love for people to look it,” she said.

To check out Goodwill Redwood Empire shopping, donation or employment opportunities, visit the regional organization’s website at gire.org

Why are so many people just now bringing no-longer-needed items to Goodwill?

Dunn figures it could that with so many of us staying or working at home because of the pandemic, we are busying ourselves by at last clearing out our garages and closets and shelves.

She wondered aloud if perhaps some folks are donating clothes because, amid changes brought on by the COVID crisis, those clothes no longer fit.

Regardless, Goodwill is delighted to take the clothes and other items no longer needed off folks’ hands, and to put them to good use.