Wood and Wardrobe rises from the ashes - Jun. 01, 2010
Kathy Bockus/Courier
Store manager Erika Boone wanders amongst the blackened ruins of the least damaged side of the Wood and Wardrobe thrift store, destroyed by fire May 22.
BY KATHY BOCKUS
kathy@stcroixcourier.ca
ST. STEPHEN – The Wood and Wardrobe thrift store will reopen in a new, rent-free location Thursday at 107A Milltown Blvd.
“Praying does help,” said a beaming Tammy Parks, manager of the St. Croix Vocational Centre Inc.,which operates the store as a retail training outlet for its mentally disabled clients.
“We’ll be back,” said Parks. “We won’t be as big as we are right now, but we’ll start small and work our way back.”
A fire early Saturday morning, May 22, gutted the thrift store in the first floor of a brick structure on King Street owned by the Vocational Centre.
The interim store will be located in a building owned by local businessman Yvon Albert.
Parks said Albert contacted the centre Thursday evening, May 27, met with her and her staff Friday morning at his building and offered them the space rent free.
“We are extremely grateful and so excited,” said Parks.
Albert wanted to downplay his benevolence.
“I’ve been fortunate in this town and I’m not likely to forget it,” said Albert.
“This town has been good to me. I was in a position to do something. It was payback time.”
Friday afternoon, Parks and some staff members, including Erika Boone the manager of the thrift store, entered the burned building for the first time since the fire.
They walked gingerly over blackened wood and debris and Parks comforted two of the women as they shed a few tears after viewing the destruction.
“To work so hard for so long for something and to have it destroyed in minutes, it’s hard,” said Parks as she looked around. “It’s devastating to see this.”
Parks and her staff had lots of praise for the firefighters who fought the blaze.
“They were wonderful. They did a good job. They were right here and they did the very, very best,” said Parks.“We couldn’t ask for more compassionate, caring people.”
Firefighters responded from St. Stephen, Calais, Oak Bay and Moores Mills.
Parks is thrilled that the centre’s clients will have a new place in which to work.
“We want to keep our guys busy and in their routine,” said Parks. She said she and the centre appreciated all the support the community has shown since the fire.
She said the centre’s clients “seem to be doing better than expected.”
“They are very resilient,” she said.
“They’ve had some subdued moments; they’re very sad and upset at what happened. We’ve told them we’re all going to work together, build it back up together, that’s what we always do.”
Parks said that the organization is still accepting donations of clothing and used goods at its location at 129 Union St., Monday to Friday between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. On weekends and in the evenings, donations can be placed in a donation bin behind the building.
The centre is also accepting cash donations which Parks said would be placed into a building fund.
She said the damage to the building on King Street was substantial and that she is still in the process of talking with the insurance company.
While she said the building was covered by insurance, “insurance never covers enough.”
Stock-wise, “we lost everything in the store.”
“Everything on that first floor is gone, and the boxes in storage have smoke damage and are no good for sale,” said Parks. She said she couldn’t place an estimate on the dollar value lost because it was hard to determine exactly “how many blouses were on a rack” or what was stored in the boxes.
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