Catalina Island Health Auxiliary would like to thank the Catalina Island community and its visitors for their donations and support of the White Buffalo Thrift Store over the years. Unfortunately, due to ongoing struggles to keep the store viable, the Auxiliary has decided to close the store by the end of this month.
The Auxiliary opened the thrift store – originally called Unloved Gifts – decades ago to raise funds in support of the hospital. It was formed by a group of caring community members and completely volunteer run. For many years, it was able to use the profits from the store to purchase things like new blankets, supplies, beds, and even spearheading a fundraising campaign for a major expansion of the hospital in 1982.
In recent years, the store has been struggling. Like many other organizations, volunteers are hard to find and retain. Service organizations in Avalon like Rotary, Lions Club, and Women’s Forum, and other nonprofits like the Catalina Island Conservancy and the Catalina Museum for Art & History are always searching for volunteers.
The National Council for Nonprofits reports the need for volunteers continues to grow post-pandemic. By mid-2022, nearly have of nonprofit CEOs reported recruiting enough volunteers was still “a big problem,” while formal volunteering dropped more than 23% in 2021 compared with 2019.
A recent study by AmeriCorps entitled “Volunteering and Civic Life in America” shows the percentage of formal volunteers in California at only 18.3% of residents in 2021 compared with 25.4% in 2017.
With the lack of volunteers to keep the store open, Catalina Island Health stepped in and began paying an employee to run it. The sales per day were never enough to offset the costs including rent and a paid employee.
According to CIH, the real issue comes down to items being left outside during non-business hours. Those items are then picked over by passersby, leaving the most unwanted/used items behind. The less desirable items are then harder to sell. Additional CIH staff has had to load up the items that cannot be sold, such as broken electronics, large furniture, tattered clothes, and trash, and then pay to dispose of them.
Due to the costs of simply trying to keep the store open and free of junk, it has been losing money. It is clear to the Auxiliary board that the thrift store is no longer able to support the hospital. After looking into various options, the Auxiliary board has made the very difficult decision to close the thrift store.
The community is invited to its Final Clearance Sale, Tuesday, Sept. 24 through Friday, Sept. 27 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Everything must go, including the shelving and fixtures. Shoppers are encouraged to bring a bag and fill it up with whatever will fit for $5.
The items that are left at the end of the sale will either be sent to the mainland for donation at another facility or taken to the dump.
No new item donations will be accepted but if you wish to make a monetary donation to offset the dump fees, please do so in person Sept. 24-27, 2024.
The White Buffalo Thrift Store is located at 210 Metropole Ave., Avalon, CA 90704.
