Re-New Thrift Store celebrating 10th anniversary next week

PERRY — A Perry thrift store known for serving its community celebrates 10 years next week, inviting all to join the festivities.

Re-New Thrift Store, a ministry operated by Women Reaching Our Community (WROC), officially marks its anniversary on March 2 and has been a mainstay in Perry.

To celebrate, the store has a variety of events planned next week, including specials and raffle giveaways, according to WROC President Emilee Sheffield.

“We’re gonna have just a whole week of all kind of fun things going on … raffles and some giveaways … it’s a great time to also just come and visit us,” Sheffield said.

Re-New, according to Sheffield, is a thrift store selling unique antiques and home goods. The store is also a hub for WROC’s food pantry and children’s clothing closet.

Besides physical goods, Re-New is also a spiritual hub, Sheffield mentioned.

“We have people that come in for prayer or to talk or to be in a quiet environment. It’s so much more than just a thrift store. It’s just a place to come and and be, with how many Bible studies were here, or how many events we have. This is our meeting place where we’re reaching out to the community,” Sheffield said.

Sheffield explained that WROC is the parent organization of Re-New, providing operational support and using proceeds from the thrift store to help fund its ministry programs. This partnership strengthens both the thrift store and WROC’s community efforts.

“WROC would not exist without Re-New, and Re-New would not exist without WROC. We’re all one community,” Sheffield said.

Over the years, the store has amassed a sizeable following, growing from humble beginnings to nearly 10,000 Facebook fans.

“It’s really humbling to think about that, but also just really awesome to see what the Lord has done in that time,” Sheffield said.

And Sheffield said the community has also followed the store physically, through every location change.

“We’ve had four different locations since we started. … as we’ve moved, the community has followed us, and as we continue to exist it grows, and we have more people that are coming to get involved. We have more people shopping and more people donating,” Sheffield said.

Re-New is volunteer-based. Sheffield said the best support is to visit the store and pray for the ministry.

“The purpose of WROC and Re-New is to be the hands and feet of Jesus. This is our connection to the community. WROC has their office where we see clients, but [Re-New] is so much bigger than that,” Sheffield said.

Re-New is located at 1131 Macon Road and is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Stay up to date with the thrift store on Facebook and with WROC on Facebook.

For more information, visit WROC’s website.