2 longtime charitable thrift shops in Colorado Springs to close, leaving philanthropic hole, some say

Mar. 7—When the Episcopal Church Women's Thrift House opened nearly 65 years ago in Colorado Springs, the idea of reselling clothes and other goods that had taken a few trips around the block but were still spiffy enough for someone else's use was novel.

"It was one of the few in town," said Penny Bever, a volunteer of more than 30 years. "Now they're a dime a dozen."

But the ranks of local charitable thrift shops are being depleted by two.

The Episcopal Women's Thrift House is preparing to close its doors likely in April, said Diana Wieger, board president. It'll take that long to get through this month's 75% off sale and move the spring merchandise next month, she says.

Wieger cites rising costs of doing business and not getting enough business to cover the costs.

Beyond that, Episcopal Church Women leaders mention unsavory neighborhood activity as another key reason.

Homeless people are keeping customers away from the store and threatening staff and volunteers, Wieger said.

It's ironically a population that has benefited from sales from the social enterprise.

The thrift house opened in April of 1958 at 2812 W. Colorado Ave., on the city's west side, land now occupied by a small office building.

In 1963, the nonprofit operation affiliated with area Episcopal churches relocated to 1027 S. Tejon St., where it's been for the past 60 years. Churches helped the organization buy the property in 1984, Bever said.

Today, just down the street there's a six-block campus that contains the city's largest homeless shelter and related services.

"The homeless population camping on the corner and sleeping on the sidewalks has made a lot of our regular customers literally afraid to come to the store anymore," Wieger said.

Homeless people have climbed on the store's roof to hang out and use drugs, she said, which necessitated installing razor wire to keep them off the property.

On top of that, "One guy held an employee hostage in her office," Wieger said. "It's been adding up; that and utilities are killing us."

Also shutting down is the Academy Spouses Club Thrift Shop, which dates to at least the early 1970s, according to former employee Patty Landon.

Sandwiched between Academy Federal Credit Union, the base's post office and the pharmacy inside the Air Force Academy's community center, the thrift shop has been a "reliable part of our military community," offering affordable clothing and household items for sale and on consignment, said Landon, who had worked as the store's assistant manager.

News of the impending closure came as an abrupt blow to workers and volunteers, she said.

"It isn't based on business being bad — we were raising money for the community and had no issues with the shop itself," Landon said. "This is a political situation."

Tenth Air Base Wing Cmdr. Col. Christopher Leonard announced a few weeks ago that the Academy Spouses Club Thrift Shop would be going out of business.

As installation commander, Leonard has authority under Air Force policy to authorize and revoke authorization for private organizations to operate on the federal property, said Academy spokesman Dean Miller.

"After evaluating emerging USAFA (United States Air Force Academy) mission and space requirements and upon review of a request by the Academy Spouses Club to pause operations at their thrift shop, the installation commander exercised his authority to cease thrift shop operations in order to best serve USAFA mission needs," Miller said in an email.

The Academy Spouses Club executive board would not provide an interview to The Gazette, instead providing a statement about the situation.

In revising and updating its bylaws and constitution this year — which is required every two years by all private organizations that operate on any military base — the group's all-volunteer board "discovered that the policies being used to govern ASC Thrift Shop operations were no longer fully compliant with changes made to Colorado and other relevant laws since 2021," the statement reads.

After speaking with lawyers, members of the executive board requested from Leonard "a pause" in thrift shop operations, the statement said, to allow time to remedy the unnamed problems.

Leonard told the club that a pause was not possible, and that "the ASC Thrift Shop would need to be fully shutdown instead," according to the club's statement.

"This response was a surprise to the Academy Spouses Club executive board," members said, adding, "However, the board understands the installation commander's decision."

Landon said the thrift store raised about $20,000 annually to fund the club's dependent scholarship awards for military families and provide welfare grants to organization such as the Academy's fire department, Douglas Valley Elementary School, Operation Homefront and others.

The spouses' club will continue fundraising efforts, the executive board said, and "try new adventures" and look for ways to expand.

The thrift shop is returning all consignment items to owners, club members said. Donated stock will either be sold or donated to other charitable organizations, with the date of a final sale still to be determined.

The space it occupies will be returned to the 10th Air Base Wing on March 31, club members said.

A facility-use board evaluates requests for space on the Academy grounds "through a formal process in support of mission requirements," Miller said.

That will determine how the thrift store space will be used, he said.

A change.org petition calling for the store to be saved has accumulated more than 150 signatures.

"It was quite a shock and seems completely unnecessary," Landon said.

The decision has drawn a mixture of comments, Miller said.

Shuttering the Episcopal Church Women Thrift House also will be difficult, say those affiliated with the longstanding nonprofit.

In prosperous times, the store raised more than a quarter million dollars yearly, said Bever.

The money was donated to a long list of nonprofits that help domestic violence victims, pregnant women, homeless and low-income residents, people needing affordable housing, families of sick children, juvenile offenders, senior citizens, military households, cancer survivors, foster kids and others in need.

In the early days, the Thrift House held creative promotions to boost sales, Bever said. The most popular was the "Snob Sale," which began in 1963 and occurred every October. Recycled riches were hauled out for the event, which was so in demand that police helped with traffic control because of crowd congestion.

"It was always considered one of the boutique, upscale thrift stores in town," Bever said.

"I think it's going to leave a hole, yet I understand everything has a cycle," she said. "It's just kind of sad overall."