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Sept. 28, 2006
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Store provides Vincentians
‘reinforcement of ministries’ |
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Second Waukesha County facility ‘community effort’ |
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OCONOMOWOC — Shoppers in Waukesha County have an additional place to look for bargains now that the Society of St. Vincent de Paul has opened a second retail store. Located at W359 N5848 Brown St., the store, which has been in operation since May, was blessed by Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan Monday, Sept. 25.
Within the 32,000 square-foot structure, a site formerly occupied by Piggly Wiggly, 20,000 square feet are devoted to retail space. Another 2,600 square feet have been used since August — without charge — by the Oconomowoc food pantry. The remaining space will be used for offices.
The first store, which continues to operate on Main Street in downtown Waukesha, opened in 1954.
According to Bob Buerger, president of the St. Vincent de Paul District Council of Waukesha, the stores reinforce the ministries the organization supports.
“The retail stores serve several purposes. Both stores provide help to customers of need,” he said. “On our home visits we give vouchers so those in need can come and get clothes, furniture and household goods free at one of our stores.”
The stores employ 27 people, and benefit from the assistance of more than 200 volunteers and the generosity of donors who contribute clothing, household goods and furniture. Buerger, a member of St. Charles Parish, Hartland, anticipates that the new store will be able to generate $50,000 in 2007 to “strengthen and reinforce our current ministries.” He hopes the store will generate more than that in subsequent years.
“It really is a community effort,” he said of the support the Vincentians have received from the Oconomowoc area community. He noted that in addition to monetary donations, people contributed more than $50,000 worth of in-kind gifts. The gifts included, but were not limited to, striping of the parking lot, pine trees, paint, concrete work, jewelry cases, and cabinets, furniture and computers.
The Waukesha County District Council is comprised of 25 conferences, each affiliated with a parish. According to Buerger, it serves approximately 28,000 people annually and distributes nearly $900,000 in assistance.
Among the outreach programs it hopes to reinforce and expand are its summer lunch program in which it provides 120 bag lunches to children who participate in park activities and its back-to-school book bag program in which it distributes school supplies and a $15 certificate toward the purchase of shoes to 300 children.
“We haven’t had enough money for all (children needing book bags) of Waukesha County,” Buerger said. “We ran out this year.”
Other outreach work includes ministry at the Waukesha County jail and several programs for children at Christmas.
Tom Zimmerman, a member of St. William, Waukesha and the volunteer communications coordinator for the district council, said that as Waukesha County expands, the Vincentians’ outreach will probably expand.
“We have to look at unmet need versus what can be done with services of the county itself,” he said. “As the county grows, there are still going to be people in need.”
Buerger said that a council committee is in the process of examining what needs are not being met and how the Vincentians can respond to them.
“We need to validate the need for those ministries,” he said. |
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