The Sunshine Coast Healthcare Auxiliary has installed new, steel donation bins at its Thrift Store in Sechelt to discourage theft and vandalism and it’s also asking people to avoid leaving donations outside the store after hours.
“Over the past few months, we have been experiencing increasing incidents of theft and vandalism to our donation bin as well as to donations that are left outside the store after hours,” Sunshine Coast Healthcare Auxiliary Thrift Store chair Karen Noon said in a letter to Coast Reporter.
Noon said the Auxiliary is very grateful for the ongoing support and the new donations that arrive every day.
“Your generous donations are pulled out of the bin, rifled through and left scattered over ours and neighbouring parking lots, and of course much of it is stolen,” she wrote. “We have sourced new metal donation bins, which should reduce theft, but there are often items that don’t fit in the bin, or are too fragile to be dropped in, which are left outside the door in plain view.”
Noon said the Auxiliary is requesting people with donations that can’t be put in the bin to bring them in during store during store hours, when volunteers are on site: Monday to Saturday 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m. to noon.
The Thrift Store is a major fundraising arm of the Auxiliary, bringing in about $1 million in the past year, which supports the Sechelt Hospital and other healthcare initiatives on the Sunshine Coast.
