Welcome To Our Dream
The Circle of Friends was a dream long before it came to fruition. The Seventh Day Adventist Church has always been one that tries to be a benefit to the communities in which we live and work. A couple of church members had the idea of having a place where our seniors could use their life experiences and still feel useful and fulfilled and we could be of service to our community. But no one seemed to have the inclination to head it up. Shirley Mason was formerly a member of the Delavan SDA Church and was living in Colorado near her husbands’ family for several years, and now had moved back to the area. Florence Schacht shared this dream with Shirley and together they started looking for a place to start it.
The LORD blessed our endeavors from the beginning. We found a store front at 21 S Wisconsin St. It was small and we knew we would quickly outgrow it, but it had a beautiful mural on the wall by the front door that was quite an attraction in itself. The rent was prepaid for 6 months with funds donated from the sale of a property. If the venture was unable to make it on its own in that time it would be a wash out. We opened the doors on Nov. 1 2004. Here we are three years later and still going strong. Obviously, we made it.
The shelving, racks, and sale tables were donated by the owner of the former Kmart store in Delavan. The cash register and pricing guns were donated by a small business that was upgrading their equipment. HyPro Manufacturing donated some folding tables and replacement legs for the sale tables. The clothing and household items, we started with, were donated by our church family and friends. Soon the community began bringing items in also. After about 6 months we rented another storefront across the street to put the furniture. We were concerned about customers crossing the street between the two stores. Soon the LORD opened the door for us to sublet (at first) another storefront just two doors away from the furniture store where we are now.
All the staff are volunteers. Most of our volunteers come to us through RSVP – Retired Senior Volunteer Program. We couldn’t do it without them! :)
“There remains Faith, Hope and Love.”
1 Cor.13
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CIRCLE OF FRIENDS MISSION THRIFT SHOPPE
16 S. Wisconsin St PO Box 74 Elkhorn WI. 53121
(p) 262-723-8177
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