Since there is nothing like Second Chance in the neighboring towns and cities, Second Chance’s customers come from all over the county. The store has earned a good and far-reaching reputation.

Who benefits from Second Chance? Many low-income families live in Fayette County. Because Second Chance makes a point of keeping the prices low, these families are able to purchase clothing and shoes for themselves and their children, as well as necessary household items and even small gifts.

In 2002, Second Chance donated almost $58,000 to local charities such as AMEN, the Crisis Center, Young Life, the Fayette Memorial Hospital Indigent Fund, Christmas Is Kids, the Fayette County Partners for Parenting, Child Welfare Board, and Mental Health-Mental Retardation. Monies were also given in needy student funds and scholarships to every public school district in Fayette County. Additionally, the La Grange ISD War on Drugs and Special Olympics programs received donations from Second Chance.

What is Mt. Calvary’s involvement? The resale store is run by a coalition of seven local churches, including Mt. Calvary. There are two permanent shop directors on staff; however, much of the work is done by unpaid volunteers from those seven churches. (Note that the churches receive no money from Second Chance.) Mt. Calvary’s turn to operate the store comes about every seven weeks. Each church has two coordinators, who, along with the pastors, sit on the Board of Directors. Mt. Calvary’s coordinators are Calvin Lange and Karen Fitch.

When are volunteers needed? The resale store is open Mondays through Saturdays. Donations are accepted on all those days. The only days the store is open for sales are Friday and Saturday. When it’s our church’s turn, we work on  Tuesday and Wednesday ("stocking" day), Friday and Saturday (sale days), and the following Monday ("cleanup" day).

Wednesdays are very important – if we have more volunteers to stock, we can get more items on the shelves for sale, and we can make more money! Sale days are also important: the mornings of sale days are especially busy. So if you would like to volunteer, but you can not work on when it is Mt. Calvary’s turn, you can still help! You can volunteer on any day, for any church. Just go to the store and tell them you are from Mt. Calvary and want to help – they’ll gladly put you to work!

The store hours are from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. But if you can’t work the whole day, come anyway!   A few hours would be greatly appreciated! 

What exactly do the volunteers do? As we’ve said, there are no special skills needed. On Wednesdays (stocking days), some volunteers price the items while other volunteers put the items out on the shelves. On Fridays and Saturdays (sale days), the volunteers man the checkout counter. Some volunteers will call out the prices, while other volunteers ring up the prices on the calculators, and others remove the clothing from the hangers and bag the purchases. After the rush is over, the volunteers may straighten the shelves and re-hang some clothing. On Mondays (cleanup days), the volunteers make sure the clothing is hung in the correct sizes, pull items that have not sold in 3 months, sweep up, and do some restocking.

None of the work is physically challenging. In fact, there are tasks that one can do while sitting down. You, as a volunteer, can choose what tasks you feel comfortable doing.

Some of our regular volunteers have been unable to attend recently and we have been short-handed. Other churches have the same problem. We are in need of more volunteers!

Why should I volunteer? The service that Second Chance provides to the community is evident when you see how much the customers appreciate the store and its volunteers. And there are at least hundreds of people in all the organizations that benefit from the donations made by Second Chance. And if that’s not enough…the volunteers have fun and get to shop!