ReStore Road Trip
Cincinnati, Ohio
Find: A dining room table made from the doors of a British castle, a dentist’s chair, a restaurant booth, a jukebox
All of these purchases are helping Habitat Cincinnati double its annual house production. “We are in the fourth year of a five-year plan to go from an average of 10 homes per year to 20,” says Ed Lee, the affiliate’s executive director. “This requires new and additional funding. We believe it’s possible, and a lot of it comes from the net income from our ReStores.”
Lexington, Kentucky
Fact: Lexington Habitat’s ReStore exceeded $1 million in sales for 2011, a year that also marked the first time the affiliate received $1 million worth of donated items. Quality items mean quality rewards, says Jim Kreiner, the affiliate’s ReStore director.
In Lexington Habitat’s “paint-bulking program,” ReStore volunteers grade, screen and re-blend partial cans of used paint into new, full-can creations. “It’s a youth-friendly job that’s messy and a ton of fun for volunteer groups,” Kreiner says. “Volunteers even get to name their own newly created paint colors, which we then sell in the store.” Recently invented paint names: “You Blue Me Away” and “Vanillanova.”
Photo courtesy Lake Agassiz Habitat
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Find: Donated decor
When the owner of Hamilton Place mall decided to remodel, the company contacted Habitat Greater Chattanooga Area, which operates a LEED-certified ReStore. Soon, truckloads of original mall pieces were on sale in the affiliate’s ReStore. Retro-style tile in red, yellow and bright orange. Two-hundred very large, aqua-blue planters. And enough benches, carpeting, furniture and shelving to fill, well, a mall.
