Portland Community Caring

Jeff Green | Dec 01, 2011

Photo: Dedicated volunteers, working on a Tuesday. Sally Young, Cheryl Kellar and Doris Veldman. The store is open Tuesdays from 9-12 and 1-4, nost Mondays, and Friday mornings when the sign is lit up.

Every Tuesday for about 30 years, the old Hartington schoolhouse has been open for business, as volunteers sell clothes and small household items at a very reasonable price to any and all who stop by.

The price is right – some items are individually priced, but for most items it is $5 a bag. With a steady crowd combing through the store, the sales add up, and since all the items are donated and the labour to clean clothes, prepare them for sale, fill the shelves and deal with customers is all done by a crew of volunteers, those sales add up to some real support for people in need.

In the early years only Portland Township residents received support from Community Caring, but ever since municipal amalgamation, the money has been spread throughout South Frontenac Township.

So far in 2011, over $17,000 had been raised. Out of that total, $4,250 has been donated to the Food Bank that is managed by Southern Frontenac Community Services (SFCS), and $4,000 has gone to a Community Caring fund to provide emergency assistance by paying for heating fuel, hydro and phone bills on a one-time basis for residents in need. This fund is also administered by SFCS. The rest of the money has been split between a number of local organizations, including the Alzheimer’s Society, Loughborough Christmas Committee, the Salvation Army, Almost Home, New Leaf Link, Interval House, and the Volunteer Firefighters Association.

“We decided this year that we wanted most, if not all of the money to stay in the local community, so even the money that went to outside groups is going to be spent on their services in South Frontenac,” said Lory Dark, who is the current Chair of Community Caring.

I met with Lory Dark, who has been working with Community Caring for a little over 4 years, and Elaine St. John, who has been with the organization for under a year. They both have a sense of the history of Community Caring and along with the other 25 volunteers, they are committed to fulfilling the same goals that prompted a few local families to start it up in the first place.

“For many years they also dealt with distributing the money by buying food vouchers for people in need and paying for fuel, etc. but that was eventually turned over to Southern Frontenac Community Services,” said Elaine St. John.

Before we sat down to do the interview, Elaine St. John asked Sally Young, who is the treasurer and was working at the sales desk at the time, what message she wanted to send to the public about the store, which is nicknamed the Hartington Mall.

“Don’t drop off your garbage,” Sally Young said.

“That’s an important point,” Elaine St. John said later. “We depend on donations of clothes and small, working appliances, but we can’t do anything with large appliances, furniture, especially stuffed furniture, and with stuff that really belongs in the dump. When someone drops unwashed dishes off it is not really helpful. Ninety-eight percent of people bring us items that we can sell, but the 2% that don’t can be a real problem.”

In the coming months Community Caring is hoping to make another major change by moving their operation to the Princess Margaret Building, which is located next door to the schoolhouse.

Both buildings are the property of South Frontenac Township. A room in the Princess Margaret building that is about the size of the schoolhouse recently became vacant when the local literacy program lost their funding.

The Princess Margaret Building is warmer than the schoolhouse, and has the added benefit of running water and flush toilets. It is also the home of the Hartington Branch of the Kingston Frontenac Public Library.

The township has been receptive to Community Caring moving in, but the remaining matter to be worked out is some space for storage and sorting.

If Community Caring does vacate the schoolhouse, it likely won’t remain empty for long. The Portland Historical Society is looking at using the schoolhouse for a museum and storage facility.

“We have some things to work out with the township, but hopefully we will find a new home in the Princess Margaret Building,” said Lory Dark.