ROCHELLE — The Presbyterian thrift shop was established in April of 1974. The shop was a vision of several church members including Mrs. Lawrence Sassaman, Mrs. Daniel Tilton, Mrs. Mark O. Tilton, Mrs. Lawrence Tastad, Mrs. Kepner, Mrs. Weaver and Mrs. Jeff Allen.

The first shop was located at 409 Cherry Ave. and consisted of one room. The vision of the shop was to provide affordably priced clothing, household goods and miscellaneous items. A place where many could not otherwise provide adequate clothing for their families and could still maintain their dignity of “taking care of their own.”

The shop eventually moved to 210 Washington Ave, where it still resides today. The building was eventually donated to the church by Don Gilbert.

This shop is considered one of our church missions. Some of the funds go to support other missions such as the Rochelle Christian Food Pantry, HOPE of Ogle County, Three Angels Orphanage in Haiti, Casa Hogar in Mexico and many others.

The shop provides free services to homeless people, fire victims and through a voucher program for children in the community who need clothing.

The shop is run by volunteers. It takes about 35 or more volunteers a month to fill our scheduled open days. Over the years, we have maintained two shifts a day. The shop is open Tuesday-Friday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. to noon. Working shifts are 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 1-4 p.m. The volunteers run the front desk, mark clothing, straighten inventory and light cleaning.

Throughout the years, many women have stepped up to manage this shop, including Doris Shafer, Donna and Gene Wood, Carol Rand, Cornea Gehring, Barb Burke, Shirley Villa and current manager, TyAnne Unger.

The shop runs on donations from the church families and from the community. Our customers are from Rochelle and many surrounding communities.

What started as a vision has now served the community for 50 years.