Clothes Cupboard to reopen in new location

SERVE's Clothes Cupboard employees and volunteers like Jesse Staats have been working for the past week to paint, sweep up broken glass and move items into the store's temporary location.
SERVE's Clothes Cupboard employees and volunteers like Jesse Staats have been working for the past week to paint, sweep up broken glass and move items into the store's temporary location.

The closed sign on the Clothes Cupboard will flip over to open Monday - but it will be hanging on a different door.

"We are temporarily moving," SERVE Executive Director Steve Mallinckrodt said. "We've been working all week and we'll be opening Monday morning at the former Brady's Paint and Glass."

Brady's had been sitting empty for a while, Mallinckrodt said, and the organization was fortunate to be able to work something out with the building's owner.

The Clothes Cupboard has been closed for three weeks now, Mallinckrodt said. While working on repairs for damage done by flooding in August, the building's landlord discovered the damage was more extensive than previously known.

"It's run into more of a job to get this taken care of," Mallinckrodt said.

Repairs could take a couple or several months, he said, but in the meantime, the new location at 518 Jefferson St. will maintain business as usual.

"We just wanted to get our doors open as best we could and get back to serving the community," Mallinckrodt said.

The building is smaller than the previous location, so stock won't be quite as extensive, but Mallinckrodt said they plan on keeping shelves and racks filled.

"Not one emergency case has gone unserved (during the closure)," Kelli Tate, the Clothes Cupboard's program director, said in a news release. "We have filled all emergent requests, even if it meant bringing stuff from home. We never left our community hanging."

Mallinckrodt added while the landlord is taking care of repairs at the former location, SERVE can always use donations.

"Through the weekend, we'll still be taking donations at the old building, and after that, we will ask people that they bring them to 518 Jefferson," he said. "We ask that people continue to support us by donating and taking advantage of our great deals."