WTNH News Channel 8 / News / 1999

	St. Vincent de Paul shop looking for shelter itself (Shelton-WTNH) _ A Shelton thrift shop and food bank designed to help needy people could be out of business. The St. Vincent de Paul shop usually shuts down for the summer, but this year it's closing for summer for a different reason - it was forced to. The building where it operated has been sold. What now? News Channel 8's Verna Collins reports. It's moving day for workers at St. Vincent De Paul's food bank and thrift shop. The only thing is they have no place to go. "Some of the people that you help are homeless, and now, the thrift shop is homeless, and the food bank is homeless, so that is ironical." The shop is a place where needy people can buy clothing and toys for almost nothing, and get food for free. For the past 9 years, Barbara Samor has operated the shop out of this building which was donated by a local family. But about 3 weeks ago the family sold the building, so workers spent today packing up shelves. Verna: "What do these shelves usually look like?" "Well they're usually full. We just had a drive from the post office and we built everything up, however we don't have a building." It's a sad day for Betty Walsh, who has spent the past nine years volunteering here. Betty Walsh: "I feel as if I'm helping people." Verna: "And where does the sadness come from?" Walsh: "The fact that it might end." It's a reality that makes clients like Shirley Walburn sad, too. She and her son are out of work on disability, and her husband is retired. Shirley Walburn: "When we get done paying everything else we have very little left, and it's nice to come to a place like this here, and get it when you need it." And when Walburn's daughter left an abusive marriage she went to St. Vincent's. Peggy Graham: "I had just left with the clothes on my back, and I had nothing, no place, no money no nothing, and St. Vincent de Paul's donated some clothes to me and my daughter." It's stories like those that make Barbara Samor determined to find the shop a new home. Samor: "We're perfectly willing to move in a smaller place, as long as we can continue to keep doing what we're doing." Today's News Page. WTNH Home Page. ©1999 WTNH/WTNH-DT A LIN station.

St. Vincent de Paul shop looking for shelter itself
(Shelton-WTNH) _ A Shelton thrift shop and food bank designed to help needy people could be out of business. The St. Vincent de Paul shop usually shuts down for the summer, but this year it's closing for summer for a different reason - it was forced to. The building where it operated has been sold. What now?
News Channel 8's Verna Collins reports.

It's moving day for workers at St. Vincent De Paul's food bank and thrift shop. The only thing is they have no place to go.

"Some of the people that you help are homeless, and now, the thrift shop is homeless, and the food bank is homeless, so that is ironical."

The shop is a place where needy people can buy clothing and toys for almost nothing, and get food for free. For the past 9 years, Barbara Samor has operated the shop out of this building which was donated by a local family. But about 3 weeks ago the family sold the building, so workers spent today packing up shelves.

Verna: "What do these shelves usually look like?"
"Well they're usually full. We just had a drive from the post office and we built everything up, however we don't have a building."

It's a sad day for Betty Walsh, who has spent the past nine years volunteering here.

Betty Walsh: "I feel as if I'm helping people."
Verna: "And where does the sadness come from?"
Walsh: "The fact that it might end."

It's a reality that makes clients like Shirley Walburn sad, too. She and her son are out of work on disability, and her husband is retired.

Shirley Walburn: "When we get done paying everything else we have very little left, and it's nice to come to a place like this here, and get it when you need it."

And when Walburn's daughter left an abusive marriage she went to St. Vincent's.

Peggy Graham: "I had just left with the clothes on my back, and I had nothing, no place, no money no nothing, and St. Vincent de Paul's donated some clothes to me and my daughter."

It's stories like those that make Barbara Samor determined to find the shop a new home.

Samor: "We're perfectly willing to move in a smaller place, as long as we can continue to keep doing what we're doing."

Today's News Page.

WTNH Home Page.