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‘I’m going to miss this place’

3 min read
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Editor’s Note: The plaza where Hidden Treasures is located was incorrectly identified as Broadwater Commons when this story was published. The correct plaza is Widewaters Commons.

By C.R. Nelson

For the Observer-Reporter

newsroom@observer-reporter.com

WAYNESBURG – Waynesburg University senior Zach Diberadin remembers coming to Hidden Treasures earlier this month and seeing the signs on the door.

“When I saw the ‘going out of business’ signs, I was shocked,” he said Tuesday as he pitched in with the rest of the workers and volunteers who are busy packing up to leave the City Mission thrift store at Widewaters Commons, Waynesburg, before the end of the month.

“I’ve been doing my service learning project here this semester, and everyone has a good attitude. It’s been fun,” Diberadin said. “Even though they’re being forced out, they still hope to stay in the community. I still have some service hours left, so I can help them move. It’s a big job.”

The store, which has been at Widewaters Commons since October 2010, will close Thursday because its lease expired.

“Our store is popular with student volunteers, and we’re grateful for all their help. I’ve had five students helping us move, and I honestly don’t know what we could have gotten all this done on such short notice without them,” store manager Kathy Suska said.

“We’ve been on a month-to-month lease, but this was still a surprise. The mission is trying very hard to stay in Waynesburg, and we’ll do an advertising campaign when we find our new location.

“Many people are praying for us. I put out a petition for our customers to comment on possible new locations and got almost 300 signatures of support. They really want us to stay.”

Hidden Treasures, an outreach of Washington City Mission, provides reasonably priced used furniture, clothing, household necessities, children’s toys, books and many other items, some donated new from local businesses.

“I’m going to miss this place,” Suska said, looking around at the spacious mall setting that customers appreciated as much as they did the variety of goods that were within their budgets to buy.

“The people in this community really have no other place locally to get good used furniture when they need to move or replace what might be lost in a fire. Believe it or not, as big as this store is, we could use more space. Hopefully, we’ll find what we need. I feel blessed that a kind businesswoman has allowed us to store our racks and shelves in one of her buildings. That will be a big help when we finally are able to move to a new location.”

Hidden Treasures workers and volunteers will be busy all day Friday with the final clean up, but shoppers are welcome to do their part by stopping by today and Thursday and taking advantage of the last super sale – 75 percent off of everything left in the store.

Updates for the new location of Hidden Treasures will be posted online at citymission.org. For more information, email Suska at ksuska@citymission.org.

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